Round Two is the Same: Griz men, Bobcat women win the Brawl

It wasn’t easy, but the Montana Grizzlies earned yet another season sweep over rival Montana State Saturday night, leading from start to finish in front of a sold-out Dahlberg Arena crowd.

The 89-83 victory over the Bobcats gets the Grizzlies to 20 wins on the season and one step closer to another Big Sky Conference regular-season title.

Junior Sayeed Pridgett lobbed an alley-oop pass to Michael Oguine just 15 seconds into the contest, and the Grizzlies never looked back, building an 8-0 lead. The Griz led by double digits less than 7 minutes into the game and by as many as 17.

Similar to the first meeting in Bozeman, though, Montana State didn't back down, cutting the score to a single score, 84-81, with under 2 minutes to play. On the next trip up the court, Ahmaad Rorie buried a three-pointer to push the lead back to six, and Kendal Manuel made a pair of free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

Pridgett scored a team-high 20 points, his third consecutive game with at least 20 points. He was one of five Grizzlies in double figures for scoring, including Manuel (19), Rorie (18), Donaven Dorsey (16) and Oguine (11). In addition to his 18 points, Rorie dished out eight assists compared to just one turnover.

“It’s definitely been special. I’ll never forget the one we lost two years ago, so I never wanted to have that feeling again in losing a rivalry game,” Rorie said. “I think with us coming out here and being able to stick to the game plan, and us winning most of them since I’ve been here, is pretty special.”

Montana shot 55.7 percent from the floor, including 50.0 percent from deep, knocking down a season-high 15 three-pointers.

Montana State senior Tyler Hall had a game-high 23 points while fellow senior Keljin Blevins added 20 and eight rebounds. Junior Harald Frey added 19 and junior Ladan Ricketts poured in 10.

The loss dropped MSU to 9-7 in the Big Sky and 12-14 overall.

Meanwhile, the Griz, who have beaten the Bobcats in 17 of the last 18 Brawl of the Wild games, are now 13-2 in league play and 20-6 overall.

Cats sweep Lady Griz

Montana State got out to the start it wanted and held off a late fourth quarter run by Montana to post a 75-71 victory over the Lady Griz Saturday afternoon in front of 3,847 raucous UM fans in Dahlberg Arena.

The victory was MSU's seventh win over the Lady Griz in the last nine meetings, and over the past 10 games at Dahlberg Arena, the two rivals are even at 5-5.

Mckenize Johnston paced Montana with 23 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, while Oliana Squires led MSU with 18 points.

Montana State (14-12, 9-7) opened the first period connecting on five-of-10 three-pointers with Ashley Van Sickle's triple at the buzzer giving MSU a 26-21 lead after the first ten minutes. Seven different Bobcats scored in the opening stanza as Montana State shot 53.3 percent from the field.

MSU built its largest lead of the first half at 36-29 on a rare Madeline Smith three-pointer at the 5:24 mark. It was Smiths' first triple of the season. Montana (12-12, 7-8) finished out the second quarter on an 8-2 run to pull to within 38-37 at intermission.

The Lady Griz used one final effort to pull to within 72-71 on a pair of Johnston free throws with 28-seconds remaining. Forced to foul, the Lady Griz sent Squires to the line with 24-seconds left. The product of Colorado Springs went one-of-two to give the Cats a two-point advantage.

"It feels pretty good," said Squires, who scored a team-high 18 points, 13 coming in the second half. "It's definitely one of our goals to sweep the Griz every season. I guess it's only happened twice and we've been a part of it both times (2017 and 2019). To be able to be a part of that was really cool."