By AUSTIN SMITH
Photos by MIKE HUBERMAN
The Montana Grizzlies tied a Big Sky record as they tallied their 24th consecutive conference win, a 73-64 victory over the Northern Colorado Bears on Thursday evening.
The Bears jumped out to an early lead and ran a fast-paced offense throughout the matchup, out-rebounding the Griz 38-28 and shooting 82% overall from the free throw line.
Despite losing sophomore guard and hype-man Kevin Henderson to legal troubles earlier this week, the Griz rallied around core leaders Will Cherry and Kareem Jamar to overcome Northern Colorado’s incessant attack.
Midway through the first half Colorado’s perimeter accuracy began to wane, a digression that, paired with Jamar’s block and subsequent assist to Cherry, shifted all remaining momentum towards the maroon bench.
Even after chasing the rock for the majority of Thursday’s minutes, the resilient Northern Colorado squad rode the coattails of junior Derrick Barden (team-high 17 points, 7 rebounds) to make it a seven-point game with a minute to go in regulation.
The push proved to be too little, too late, however, as the Grizzlies shot 14-22 from the line, ultimately dribbling out the clock and pushing their current win streak to 12 games.
Jamar was Montana’s leading scorer, flirting with a triple-double on 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Mathias Ward wasn’t far behind with 14 points; Cherry was the third Griz player in double digits with 13 points and five assists.
Montana will look to set a new Big Sky Conference record of 25 consecutive wins when they host North Dakota this Saturday, January 9th. They will then take to the road for a five-game marathon culminating on March 4th.