Second Cat-Griz basketball meeting of the season ends in victory

For the first time since 1999, in front of a sold out Fieldhouse, both the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams swept the University of Montana all four games this season. Led by RaeQuan Battle, who had 19 points in the game, the ‘Cats were able to get the lead just 34 seconds into the first half and never looked back. 

“Teams win if they start out with the first punch. We had to throw the first punch and that’s what we did and ended up maintaining that lead,” Battle said. 

The ‘Cats started the game on an 8-0 run with points coming from Jubrile Belo, Caleb Fuller, Darius Brown II and Battle. After a hot start, much of the first half was an up and down, ugly game. The ‘Cats went just over ten minutes in the middle of the first without scoring, but were able to stay in the game from the charity stripe. 

“It was a typical Cat-Griz basketball game. They make you earn it and I thought our guys did earn it,” said head coach Danny Sprinkle. “We made some big shots; we made some big free throws. I thought we missed a lot of wide open shots that could have broken the game open at times. We knew they were gonna make a run.”

There was life at the end of the first, as Brown II and Tyler Patterson both knocked down imposing three pointers with less than 1:05 left in the half. These shots also got the crowd back into the game and, after an entertaining halftime show, the ‘Cats came out hot in the second half. After shooting just 29.4% from the field in the first, the open threes were bound to start falling and fall they did. 

“There’s gonna be a game where we knock down those open threes and it’s going to be a good night,” said Sprinkle. 

With 16:55 left in the second, the ‘Cats extended the eight point halftime lead to 13 from a Brown II layup. Much like the first it was a back and forth middle period of the half and with 9:51 the teams were still separated by 13. Slowly, the ‘Griz began to chip away at the lead and with just 42 seconds left the gap was down to two points. UM, led by Josh Bannen and Aanen Moody, made a  quick turn around that stunned the crowd and the players. After some tough buckets by Moody, Battle drew a foul and went two for two from the line. With just five seconds left, and a four point lead, all the “Cats had to do was run the clock out and not foul, which is exactly what they did. Final score was 72-68 and the Bobcats were able to join the women’s team in getting the season sweep over the Griz

“I know how much this means to Bobcat Nation. It is an emotional game, and it’s been a long time since we swept them,” said Sprinkle. 

On a night that meant so much to the players and fans, a gutsy performance was needed as the Bobcats faced the Griz. It was a game that was by no means perfect, but the Big Sky Conference better watch out, because with three regular season games left the Bobcats are a team to fear this postseason.