by TUCSON, Ariz. – The Montana State men’s basketball team hung with the No. 5 Arizona Wildcats until midway through the second half, yet cold perimeter shooting and a late Arizona surge led to an 85-64 loss on Tuesday.
“Our guys played their butts off,” Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle told Bobcat Sports Radio Network. “We talked a lot to them about playing hard versus competing. Everyone is going to play hard, but you’ve got to compete on the glass, compete for loose balls and be physical on screens — especially against this team. Arizona’s pace and physicality is crazy.”
The Bobcats (7-6) shot 48.4% from the field in the first half, yet the Wildcats’ (11-1) defense held MSU to 36.0% shooting in the second half — including 0-for-10 from beyond the arc. Although the Bobcats trailed by seven late in the second half, Arizona would pull away by taking advantage of 10 turnovers and MSU’s 9-for-17 (52.9%) free throw shooting in the second half.
“If you would’ve told me before the game that we’d have 24 points in the paint and Arizona would have 26 points in the paint, I’d be pretty excited,” Sprinkle said. “But it came down to making shots. We were 3-for-25 from three, and a lot of them were open. We had some good looks.”
Jubrile Belo led Montana State with 18 points (on 7-for-8 shooting) and six rebounds, all while going up against Arizona’s frontcourt tandem of Oumar Ballo and Azuolas Tubelis. RaeQuan Battle chipped in 17 points and four rebounds, while Sam Lecholat chipped in nine points and five rebounds off the bench.
Playing against the program’s first top-5 opponent in nearly a decade, Montana State looked unfazed in the early goings. Jubrile Belo backed down Oumar Ballo for a left hook, then Tyler Patterson nailed a three and Caleb Fuller sank two free throws to take an early 7-6 lead. Arizona would tie the game at 9 with a three from Kerr Kriisa, yet the Bobcats would keep hanging with the No. 5 team in the nation.
After a Sam Lecholat put-back made the score 16-13 in favor of the Wildcats, the Bobcats pulled back into the game by forcing four-straight empty Arizona possessions. Battle drew a charge, then Robert Ford III stripped Cedric Henderson Jr. and found Battle wide open on the other end for an easy dunk. Trailing 16-15 with 12:33 to go, Montana State couldn’t get over the hump, whereas Arizona went on a 7-0 run in two minutes.
Four-straight points from Belo and five-straight points from Sam Lecholat helped the Bobcats keep pace, then Montana State pulled within four points off a free-throw from Belo with 27 seconds to play. Yet Kerr Kriisa nailed a three on Arizona’s final possession to take a 44-37 lead at half.
A 10-0 Arizona run early in the second half threatened to put the game away early, if not for Battle scoring MSU’s first six points of the half to help the Bobcats keep pace. Montana State got three good looks at the rim to pull within nine points with 11:54 left.
Then the Bobcats scored four points in the bink of an eye, which appeared to be the spark the team needed. Belo found Battle for an alley-oop, then a savvy defense move from Darius Brown II to steal the ensuing Arizona inbounds pass made it a 59-52 game in favor of the hosts with 10:11 to go.
Less than a minute later, Arizona star big man Azuolas Tubelis picked up his fourth foul, which left the door open for the Bobcats to make a run. But Montana State would go 0-for-3 from the field and miss two front-ends of a one-and-one while the Wildcats’ lead ballooned to 12. MSU would only pull within 14 points from that point forward, as an 0-for-10 three-point shooting half and 10 turnovers thwarted the upset bid.
“We were trailing by 10 points, which was manageable, but we missed a bunch of free throws,” Sprinkle said. “We missed the front end of a few one-and-ones, then they came down on the other end and hit two threes. All of a sudden, it was an 18-point lead.”
Kerr Kriisa led the Wildcats with 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting, while Ballo (18.1 PPG) and Tubelis (20.1 PPG) combined for 25 points.
