Montana Grizzlies hold off Montana State Bobcats to give Travis DeCuire milestone win

BOZEMAN The Montana men's basketball team staved off multiple comeback attempts from Montana State, giving Travis DeCuire a doubly sweet victory.

DeCuire now has 221 wins as UM's head coach, tied with George "Jiggs" Dahlberg for most all time in UM men's history, after the Grizzlies' 89-85 win over the Bobcats on Saturday night at Worthington Arena.

It was the ninth straight victory for UM (20-8, 13-2 Big Sky) and snapped a six-game home winning streak for MSU (12-16, 7-8).

UM took a 49-40 lead into halftime.

MSU had the field goal shooting advantage, 57.7% to 53.1%, in the first half but allowed six turnovers while forcing one, resulting in a 10-2 Griz advantage in points off turnovers.

UM led by as many as 11 in the first 20 minutes.

MSU cut the deficit to 53-52 and were within a couple possessions the next few minutes.

Then UM went on a 9-0 run to build its largest lead of the night, 72-59.

The Cats responded with an 11-2 run and cut it to 76-72 on a Patrick McMahon dunk that sent a jolt through the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

McMahon whittled the deficit down to 80-77 on an and-1 as well.

The Griz scored the next six points to take a nine-point lead with 2 minutes, 20 seconds left.

McMahon had a chance to make it a two-point game with an and-1 at the 54-second mark, but he missed the free throw.

Another McMahon and-1 with 12 seconds left gave MSU an opportunity to pull within one, but McMahon missed again.

Te'Jon Sawyer made both foul shots on the other end to put the Griz up 89-85.

The Griz led for 38 minutes and 57 seconds.

The only tie was 0-0.

UM finished 21 of 26 (80.8%) from the charity stripe, while MSU was 20 of 33 (60.6%).

Five Grizzlies finished with double-figure points: Kai Johnson (23), Brandon Whitney (18), Malik Moore (14), Joe Pridgen (13) and Sawyer (12).

McMahon led MSU with 22 points, Jabe Mullins scored 17 and Brandon Walker added 16.

This story will be updated.

Victor Flores is the Montana State Bobcats beat writer for 406 MT Sports.

Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter/X at @VictorFlores406 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!.

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