Aanen Moody proved all year long that he has no fear of the moment. Under the brightest lights possible, Moody delivered the best performance of his career to lead Montana to a quarterfinal win against Idaho State on Monday night.
Moody scored a career-high 28 points as Montana defeated the Bengals 83-74 to advance to a semifinal matchup against No. 9 Northern Arizona on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The Lumberjacks upset No. 1 Eastern Washington in the quarterfinals.
A tie game at the half was blown open in the final 20 minutes by the Grizzly offense. Montana shot 68 percent in the second half, running away from the Bengals down the stretch. It is the eighth win in the last nine games dating back to the regular season for Montana, who advance to the semifinals for the sixth time in eight appearances under DeCuire.
Moody also finished with a career high seven assists and he pulled down five boards. It was the Aanen Moody show all night long, as he scored 14 points in both halves to lead the Grizzlies to victory. At what point did Moody know that he was going to be on tonight?
Photo courtesy of Grizzly Athletics
“When I woke up.”
Moody will steal the headlines, but it was a complete team effort that led to the victory. The Griz had three starters in double figures and a couple of key performances off the bench to get the win.
“I think the last month what you’ve seen is this group come together. They’ve found a way to play as one,” head coach Travis DeCuire said in the postgame press conference. “I think anyone could be sitting at this podium tonight, and it’s kind of been that way for us for the last month.”
Montana dominated inside the paint, outscoring the Bengals 40-30 in the game. Juniors Brandon Whitney (18 points) and Josh Bannan (13 points) played a huge role in that, getting into the paint at will to combine for an efficient 11-for-17 (65 percent) shooting.
Dischon Thomas also had a big game. After going scoreless in his last three games entering the tournament, he provided the energy that led to a good Montana start. He finished the night with eight points and eight rebounds. But it was on the defensive end, where he limited Third Team All-Big Sky performer Brayden Parker to just 40 percent shooting and two rebounds, that he really left his mark on the game.
“Honestly going into the game with the mindset of, if I’m not scoring I’m going to find other ways to affect the game,” Thomas said. “Going into the game I just had a mindset that I was going to buckle down and get the job done defensively, whatever it took.”
His eight rebounds shared the team lead with Bannan. The combination of Montana’s hot-shooting and strong presence inside led to Idaho State finishing the night with just 20 rebounds. Montana grabbed 29, including seven on the offensive end.
It was the 14th time this season Montana has won the rebounding battle. They are now 12-2 in those games.
“Dischon Thomas probably has the best defensive game of the season in terms of his ability to man up down low by himself without requiring help and the way that he rebounded the ball,” DeCuire said. “He contested a lot of shots and changed a lot of things in the paint.”
He had four early rebounds as Montana just had to hang on in the opening minutes and withstand a torrent Bengals start. Idaho State made eight of the first 14 shots they took in the game, including four out of five from three-point range. Still, they couldn’t separate from the Grizzlies as it was 20-18 early.
DeCuire rode his starters for the first 10-plus minutes of the game, finally going to the bench as the Bengals went on a 6-0 scoring run. Still, the Grizzlies were within striking distance. Whitney was able to tie it up at 24-all as the Grizzlies switched it on defensively. They held the Bengals scoreless for over four minutes and reeled off a 7-0 run to take the lead back at 25-24.
A first half full of runs saw another one. The Bengals reeled off six straight points again, this time extending the lead out to 30-25. When the moment called for him, Moody stepped up. Down the stretch in the first half he scored the final seven points for Montana, including a buzzer beater three from well beyond the arc to tie it up at 34-all at the half.
After it felt like Montana was playing behind for much of the first half, they took control of the game in the second. Bannan threw down a dunk on a Moody assist, then a Thomas three-point play and Whitney jumper added to a 7-0 Grizzly run. They scored all seven points in 55 seconds of game time, tilting momentum heavily in favor of Montana.
Idaho State hung around, largely due to the excellent play of Brock Mackenzie. He finished the night with a game-high 31 points. The teams traded baskets, at one point making a combined seven straight field goals.
Moody just wouldn’t be denied. As they closed out aggressively to chase him off the line, he was able to find teammates. Then he got to the rim, scoring six straight in the paint to push the lead to eight points at 64-56. The defense couldn’t adjust for the unpredictability and explosiveness of Moody’s game.
“Aggressive patience,” DeCuire described it as. “It’s hard. When you have a young man that can score the way he can and shoot the ball the way he can, you don’t want to take away their aggressive nature. But you also still want them to play within the concepts when you have so much talent around them.”
The talent around him showed up on Monday. Josh Vazquez would knock down a triple to extend the lead to double figures for the first time at 69-59. The Griz couldn’t miss, and shortly thereafter reeled off another 7-0 run capped off by a three-pointer from – who else – Moody. He made his final five shots of the night, and the Griz made 11-of-13 down the stretch to leave no doubt.
“Aanen Moody got hot and stayed hot,” DeCuire said.
Idaho State hung around, largely due to the excellent play of Brock Mackenzie. He finished the night with a game-high 31 points. The teams traded baskets, at one point making a combined seven straight field goals.
Moody just wouldn’t be denied. As they closed out aggressively to chase him off the line, he was able to find teammates. Then he got to the rim, scoring six straight in the paint to push the lead to eight points at 64-56. The defense couldn’t adjust for the unpredictability and explosiveness of Moody’s game.
“Aggressive patience,” DeCuire described it as. “It’s hard. When you have a young man that can score the way he can and shoot the ball the way he can, you don’t want to take away their aggressive nature. But you also still want them to play within the concepts when you have so much talent around them.”
The talent around him showed up on Monday. Josh Vazquez would knock down a triple to extend the lead to double figures for the first time at 69-59. The Griz couldn’t miss, and shortly thereafter reeled off another 7-0 run capped off by a three-pointer from – who else – Moody. He made his final five shots of the night, and the Griz made 11-of-13 down the stretch to leave no doubt.
“Aanen Moody got hot and stayed hot,” DeCuire said.