by BOZEMAN, Mont. – The Montana State men’s basketball team showed off its depth and front-court play in their 72-58 Big Sky Conference-opening win over the University of Idaho on Thursday night.
With the victory, the Bobcats (8-6, 1-0 Big Sky) extended its winning streak in Worthington Arena to 14-straight wins. The Vandals (6-8, 0-1 Big Sky), meanwhile, dropped their fourth-straight game against Montana State.
Jubrile Belo led the Bobcats with 19 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while Tyler Patterson had his best game of the season, scoring 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting off the bench. RaeQuan Battle finished in double-figures for the seventh-straight game with 13 points — all of which came in the second half.
“Jubrile was tremendous tonight,” Sprinkle said. “He came in playing with a point to prove. I thought the game changed with Tyler Patterson in the first half. He was phenomenal. He changed the way Idaho had to guard us.”
Defensively, MSU held the Vandals to shooting 40.0% from the field and 26.3% from three. Going into the night, Idaho led the Big Sky in field goal percentage and ranked second in the conference by averaging 79.7 points per game. Idaho only had seven assists on its 22 made field goals, plus the Bobcat defense held Big Sky leading scorer Isaac Jones in check. He finished with six points before fouling out late in the game.
With leading scorer RaeQuan Battle in foul trouble and Idaho guard Divant’e Moffitt scoring at will, the game appeared to be another close conference contest early on. The Vandals would take a 6-2 lead — their largest of the night — yet the Bobcats responded by out-working Idaho in the paint. Belo and Great Osobor handled Idaho’s frontcourt in the first half with easy looks at the rim, then Darius Brown II stepped into an easy three.
As Sprinkle turned to the bench early in the first half, MSU’s reserves answered the call and helped the Bobcats reclaim the lead for good. Osobor found Patterson for a three, then the sophomore hit a deep two on the next possession that put MSU up 12-10.
From there, MSU didn’t look back.
Belo got the crowd fired up by finishing a difficult layup over his shoulder and through contact for an and-one opportunity. Then, the Bobcats used five passes and zero dribbles to feed Osobor on the left block for a dunk that put MSU ahead 18-12 with 10:17 to go in the half. Patterson was still the hot hand, as three more triples gave the Bobcats a double-digit lead — and Patterson 14 points — with three minutes to play. Osobor’s third field goal of the night gave the Bobcats a 34-20 lead at half, and the hosts would keep their double-digit lead from that point forward.
Making up for lost time after being saddled with foul trouble in the first half, Battle dazzled in the second half. He nailed a three on his first touch of the half, climbed the latter for an alley-oop from Brown II, then got fouled on a three on the right wing that put MSU up 52-32. Moments later, Patterson brought the MSU bench to its feet after hitting his fifth three, giving the Bobcats their largest lead of the night.
Despite playing without Isaac Jones for the final three minutes, Idaho would pull within 11 off a 4-0 run from Nigel Burris. Yet they wouldn’t get closer. Belo cleaned up a miss from Caleb Fuller with an emphatic dunk, then a late block from Osobor on Idaho’s final possession put the finishing touches on the 72-58 win.
Moffitt led the Vandals with 19 points on 8-for-20 shooting, plus four of Idaho’s seven assists. Nigel Burris added an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double, and Trey Smith also finished in double-figures with 10 points.
