Star of the game: Senior Will Cherry scored a season-high 28 points to lead the Griz. He was 15 of 16 at the free-throw line, just two games removed from a 7-for-13 effort against Montana State.
“He’s a big-game guy,” Montana coach Wayne Tinkle said of Cherry, who led the team in rebounding with six while also snaring four steals. “He’s getting healthier. For him to shoot free throws the way he did the other night and then go 15 for 16 was instrumental and shows you his toughness.”
It was Cherry’s highest scoring output since he scored a career-high 30 points at Northern Colorado on Feb. 9, 2012. His baseline drive for a reverse layup that got Montana within 27-24 during a 21-7 first-half run brought the crowd to its feet.
“I have to credit my teammates and the coaches for drawing up those plays,” Cherry said. “I got to the free-throw line and I think I missed one all night. That was huge, getting easy buckets and seeing the ball go in. My teammates kept giving me the ball and believing in me to make the right play, whether getting a layup or hitting someone for a dunk.”
Rivalry heats up
Apparently some words were exchanged – but no punches thrown – as the teams shook hands following the final horn.
“It was just two competitive teams,” Montana’s Kareem Jamar said. “It was a little chirping.”
“I was halfway up the tunnel,” Tinkle said. “Two competitive teams, a big game and apparently there was a little bit of talk going on. I know I expect better from our guys and I know (WSU coach) Randy (Rahe) expects better. It was an emotional game and we have to make sure we don’t allow any of that nonsense. I’m glad our guys held their composure and didn’t do anything silly.”
“I don’t know what happened,” Rahe said. “My assistants will find out and tell me. We have kids who know each other and it’s an emotional game. It’s a big rivalry now. We’ll find out what happened and I guarantee you if there’s something that happened on our part, I’m going to damn-sure take care of it and that will never happen again.”
Small ball
The Griz were able to use their small lineup even against the much bigger Wildcats. Weber starts 6-10 center Kyle Tresnak, along with 6-6, 220-pound Frank Otis. Rahe also brings 6-9 freshman Joel Bolomboy off the bench.
The Griz started 6-9 center Eric Hutchison, but he played just 10 minutes. Mike Weisner and Kevin Henderson replaced him in Montana’s small lineup at different times.
“We knew we were going to do that and just hope our guys battled on the glass,” said Tinkle, whose Griz outrebounded the Wildcats 31-25. “Spreading them out was the key and being small allowed us to do that.”
Source:
http://www.grizbasketball.com/?p=737
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