Montana
Griz survive cold shooting for 69-66 win – University of Montana Athletics
Brandon Whitney drove down the lane and finished nearly uncontested, cutting the Trailblazer lead to one point with 13 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbound, Whitney and Amari Jedkins trapped Utah Tech in the backcourt. They passed out of the double-team, but Johnson was there to intercept and cut to the hoop.
The guard finished through contact to make it 67-66 Montana, the first lead for the Grizzlies in 14 minutes. He missed the free throw, but was able to track down his own rebound and was fouled again. This time, Johnson made both at the line to make it 69-66. A desperation attempt from Utah Tech was off, and Montana survived.
The Grizzlies (4-3) only needed the dramatic comeback after a tough shooting stretch disintegrated a double-digit lead and allowed Utah Tech to pull back into the game. Montana went 8:09 without a made field goal, going scoreless the final 6:37 of the first half.
After making 13 of their first 19 shots (.684), Montana went 2-of-22 for an over 15 minute stretch of the game. But when things got tough, they responded with seven makes on their final eight attempts to come from behind.
“You have to take ugly wins when you can get them,” head coach Travis DeCuire said. “I do think they build character when you have tough games and you have to come from behind, you have a lead for most of the game, but we just really had a hard time getting the lid off the hoop. I thought we were on pace to score 50 in the first half and then we didn’t score a basket in the last six minutes, and we never really snapped out of it. That was a tough one, but I’ll take it.”
CHAOS IN MISSOULA! KAI WITH THE STEAL AND SCORE AND THE GRIZ LEAD!! pic.twitter.com/Kx3KVYEHUA
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) November 26, 2024
Brandon Whitney and Kai Johnson, the two players involved in the late scoring, were the leaders for Montana on the night with 16 points apiece. They were the only Grizzlies in double figures as Montana shot 43 percent from the floor and just 20 percent from three-point range.
Johnson scored nine of his points in the second half, five of which came from the free throw line. He also recovered two of his own missed free throws, hustling for every ball. His steal to win the game was his third of the day.
Whitney started the game strong, and ended it in the same fashion, taking over down the stretch with the offense struggling. He got to the rim three times in the final three minutes to score six of his 16 in the closing moments.
“We wanted to get Whitney to the rim, and that’s really what we were doing down the stretch. The last couple baskets we scored, we knew they would probably go with their halfcourt trap to zone but I felt that if we got in transition quick off the make or miss they would have a hard time setting it up, which ended up working out.”
You couldn’t have drawn up a much better start for the Griz. They made their first three shot attempts, and after a three-pointer from Austin Patterson with 12:25 left in the first half had a 25-14 lead. At that point, Montana had made 9-of-11 field goal attempts. They hit a brief cold patch, but recovered with four of their next five. Jedkins gave them a 38-28 lead with 6:37 to play in the first half.
The Griz were shooting nearly 70 percent from the floor at the time, and were scoring nearly 3.0 points per minute. They were on pace to score well over 100 points for the game, and had nine different players in the scoring column.
“The ball was moving. I think that our intent was different,” DeCuire said of the hot start. “I think that we thought we needed to generate offense for one another and the ball needed to move and we needed to be patient, but we were scoring pretty quickly and pretty easily. And then I think we thought it was going to be like that the whole game.”
As Montana settled in, Utah Tech ramped up the effort defensively. Montana missed eight straight shots and also committed four turnover in the final six minutes. They still led 38-34 at the halftime break.
Coming out of the break, it was much of the same. The Griz missed their first two attempts before Money Williams finally stopped the scoring drought on a lay-up with 18:28 to play. But the Griz would go on to miss 10 of their next 11 shots with Williams scoring again during the stretch. Outside of the two makes from him, the Grizzlies misconnected on 20 straight shots.
Utah Tech was able to build a four-point lead as a result. Joe Pridgen got things going in the final 10 minutes, scoring seven of his nine points during that stretch.
Montana’s defense also helped keep it in the game. The Griz held Utah Tech to just 21 percent shooting from the three-point line and scored 12 points off Trailblazer turnovers. During the cold stretch for the hosts, the Griz defense was able to hold Utah Tech to just 1-of-10 shooting during a stretch. It kept Montana in position to make the comeback late.
The largest lead for the Trailblazers was five points, and Pridgen cut that down to one with back-to-back layups to make it 53-52. Utah Tech maintained a 2-4 point advantage for the closing six minutes before chaos broke loos in the final 60 seconds.
Tennessee Rainwater made a layup to give Utah Tech a 65-61 lead with 56 seconds to play. Johnson was then fouled, and made his first but missed the second. Johnson tracked down his own board, and was fouled again. He once again made 1-of-2, cutting the lead to 65-63 with 48 seconds left.
Montana elected not to foul, and played out nearly the whole shot clock before committing a shooting foul at the rim with 20 seconds left. Samuel Ariyibi made 1-of-2 free throws to give Utah Tech the 66-63 lead.
And then, some magic for Montana. Whitney scored on the drive, helped force the turnover, and Johnson put it away at the line. Six points. 13 seconds. Griz win.
“They’ve got two dominant ball handlers, and we wanted to take both away, so I thought putting Whitney on the ball because he’s good at reading and taking away the first cutter,” DeCuire said of the final play. “I thought when he took the ball handler away on the first cut, Malik did the job on the second cut, and Kai jumped the lane when they got close to the five count. That’s what happens when you get close to the five count, you kind of panic and just try to get the ball out of your hands and Kai was able to make a play.”
Montana won the rebounding category 39-33 and had an 18-6 advantage at the free throw line in terms of makes. They also did well in transition, scoring 13 fast break points. But overall, it was a night that many Griz players would like to have back.
But on the second day of a back-to-back, these are the types of games that you want to win to build some character for the rest of the season.
“It’s huge. You don’t want these games going in, but when you look back over the course of 10, 15, 20 games, you want to look back and say we’ve had a couple of challenges that we’ve survived and we conquered and this is one of them,” DeCuire said.
The head coach improves to 50-6 in home non-conference games, 4-0 this season. His team will certainly need to make improvements on Wednesday when they host CSUN in the championship game of the Stew Morrill Classic.
CSUN defeated Denver 89-60 in the first game on Monday afternoon. The Matadors led nearly the entire game, making 33 free throws in the contest. They have several athletic players that got to the rim at will against Denver, and it led to a .519 field goal percentage.
“We’ve got to keep them out of the paint. They have three or four guys that are really good at getting into the paint and finishing, they are good at sharing the ball around the basket,” DeCuire said. “They only made two threes today but put 89 on the board, so they find a way to get to the free throw line and we need to keep them off the line and out of the paint.”
GREAT FALLS — Blowing dust is becoming a major issue again on the Hi-Line as winds gust to 60–70+ mph, especially from Phillips County eastward.
Visibility has dropped to very low to near zero at times, and there have already been several crashes east of Glasgow near Nashua and Frazer. People are urged to avoid unnecessary travel in these areas if possible.
This is a very dangerous situation for travelers across northeast Montana. Blowing dust is causing near-zero visibility in many locations.
WATCH:
Hazardous driving along the Hi-Line
Highway 2 from Dodson to Wolf Point is closed until further notice, with only emergency travel allowed in these areas.
All red- and black-shaded roads and highways are experiencing severe driving conditions because of the low visibility.
MDT
Click here to visit the MDT 511 site.
(WEDNESDAY, MAY 13) A fast-moving front rolled through north-central Montana on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. The powerful winds gusted to more than 80 miles per hour in some areas.
Shaylan Verploegen shared video from north of Havre, showing a huge “wall” of dirt and dust in a unique weather phenomenon known as a haboob; watch the video and see other viewer photos here:
Fast-moving front kicks up walls of dust
The strong winds caused some damage. There were trees blown over in Havre, Great Falls, and Helena. Part of a roof was blown off in Box Elder, and there were several carports that were destroyed in Havre. There were also numerous power outages reported across the area, some of which lasted for several hours.
Check out more photos and videos shared by KRTV viewers:
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The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 13, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from May 13 drawing
22-31-52-56-67, Powerball: 15, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from May 13 drawing
17-18-28-37-42, Star Ball: 04, ASB: 02
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from May 13 drawing
02-06-10-16, Bonus: 16
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from May 13 drawing
08-13-39-63-66, Powerball: 02
Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Montana Cash numbers from May 13 drawing
02-04-13-17-32
Check Montana Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 13 drawing
21-24-29-42-49, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Montana
Public Meeting at Hub on Smith Concerning Montana Water Call Prompting Priority Administration in Tongue Basin
Wyoming State Engineer Brandon Gebhart announced that on May 5, 2026, the State of Montana placed a call under Article V(A) of the Yellowstone River Compact to fill Tongue River Reservoir in Montana. As a result, priority administration is in effect on post-1950 water rights in Wyoming that divert water from the Tongue River and its tributaries and are not excluded from the compact.
A public meeting will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 18, in the dining room of The Hub on Smith. Attendees are asked to enter on the north side of the building.
The Tongue River Basin has been experiencing drought conditions over the past year with historically low winter snowpack and streamflow conditions. According to the release, those conditions led to Montana’s interstate call and prompted the administration of the Tongue River Basin in Wyoming.
The priority administration will affect post-1950 water rights within the Tongue River Basin, including reservoir storage, stream diversions and groundwater withdrawals, all of which affect river flows. Post-1950 water rights will be regulated off or prevented from turning on. Wyoming hydrographer-commissioners will continue to administer reservoir storage and post-1950 diversions throughout the spring and work with affected water users until the administration is lifted.
As provided in the compact, domestic uses less than one-half acre in area and livestock uses, including stock reservoirs less than 20 acre-feet in capacity, are excluded from this administration. The release noted these excluded rights could be subject to future regulation to satisfy priority calls by senior Wyoming water rights.
Beginning May 5, 2026, Wyoming hydrographer-commissioners have worked to record the current storage levels of reservoirs with post-1950 water rights. Going forward, those reservoirs can continue to accrue storage so long as post-1950 storage gained after the interstate call on May 5 remains in storage until either the water is released to satisfy the Montana call or Montana lifts the call because Tongue River Reservoir will fill.
Reservoirs with unfulfilled pre-1950 water rights can continue to store water and that storage will not be subject to release to satisfy Montana’s call. However, that storage and other direct flow rights could be subject to regulation to satisfy priority calls by senior Wyoming water rights.
The priority administration will be carried out pursuant to state law by hydrographer-commissioners assigned to various portions of the Tongue River Basin, working under the direction of Division II Superintendent David Schroeder.
The Wyoming State Engineer’s Office can be contacted at:
Jack Morey, deputy state engineer, 307-777-5032, jack.morey2@wyo.gov
David Schroeder, Division II superintendent, 307-674-7012, d.schroeder@wyo.gov
Jeff Cowley, interstate streams administrator, 307-777-1942, jeff.cowley@wyo.gov
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