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.”
BOZEMAN — Aaron Flint and Al Olszewski, Republican candidates for Montana’s Western District U.S. House race, squared off Tuesday in their party’s only scheduled debate before the party primary.
The two debated for about 90 minutes at Bozeman’s Calvary Chapel before an audience of about 120 people. Bozeman anchors Gallatin County, which is second in Republican votes only to Flathead County within the 18-county district.
Natural resource jobs, affordable housing and U.S. military attacks on Iran dominated the discussion. Each question drew 12 minutes of response. Both men called for an end to stock trading by members of Congress, and for federal budgets to be passed on time through regular procedures.
The Montana GOP sponsored the debate. Candidate Christi Jacobsen, Montana’s secretary of state, was unable to attend, according to state Republican Party Chair Art Wittich. State Senate President Matt Regier moderated.
Among the highlights: Flint mentioned no fewer than eight times that he is endorsed by President Donald Trump. Olszewski mentioned Trump by name only a couple of times.
Never too far from Flint’s talking points were “far-left socialists,” whom he credited for “gerrymandering” the Western House District (which has delivered comfortable wins for Republicans since first appearing on the ballot in 2022). The 2026 election cycle was the target of Democrats on the state’s districting commission, Flint said. (Both Democrats on the commission that drew the district in 2021 voted against its current configuration.)
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The near faux pas of the night came during Olszewski’s discussion of good-paying jobs in trades and natural resources: “Trades jobs, natural resource jobs, you know, high-dollar, white-collar jobs, our remote workers who have moved into Montana, and we’ve adapted an economy around them. You know, these are the people, and those are the jobs that will bring our kids home, those high-paying white-collar jobs, or a good natural resource job in western Montana, in one of those mines, or, you know, you know, a sawyer or a hooker” — big pause — “as in timber, not the other way around.”
The line that didn’t land: Flint tried and failed to get audience applause for the 2024 defeat of Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester by Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy — an unseating Flint campaigned for.
“How many of you out there are so glad that we finally got rid of the flip-flop, flat-top liberal senator, Jon Tester? How many of you are so glad we finally did that?”
After a silence, Flint explained to people watching the debate on Facebook that the audience was just being polite.
“They’re waving because we can’t have disruptions. See, they’re good rule followers here in the Republican Party,” Flint said.
Asked how to alleviate Montana’s housing affordability crisis:
Olszewski: “The only way you can afford an expensive house is you’ve got to have a job that pays good money. Tourist jobs provide rent and roommates. Trades jobs, natural resource jobs, high‑dollar white‑collar jobs … those are the jobs that will bring our kids home.” Dr. Al, as Olszewski is widely known, said Wall Street investment buyers are distorting housing prices and the federal government has weakened the dollar.
Flint: “Thirty percent of the cost of a home is all due to red tape and regulations … It costs $100,000 to build a home before you even put a hole in the ground.”
Flint said reviving Montana’s timber industry would lower home values and added, “I support President Trump’s ban on these big Wall Street firms buying single-family homes. I think that’s something that we’ve got to get across the finish line.”
“We can deliver when it comes to making the Montana dream affordable again by delivering affordable housing. But another piece is promoting trades and trades education to build up our workforce.”
Asked how Congress should respond to the Iran conflict:
Olszewski: “I supported our president with what happened in Venezuela. There’s a $25 million bounty on basically someone that was killing our people through drugs, right? I’m not so happy with what’s going on in the Iran war. I’m not a warrior. I’m a physician from the military that fixed military people … What my perspective is, is that countries can win wars, but people do not. They don’t come back.” Olszewski said Congress will have to decide whether to authorize further use of military force and set terms in about 10 days.
Flint: “Let me just say this. We are sick and tired of these forever wars, and we do not want to see a long-term boots-on-the-ground Iraq-style nation-building exercise, and I think President Trump shares that mission as well. Let me also say this about Iran. First off, [former Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro is behind bars. [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei is dead, but the far-left socialists are on the march in Montana.”
Asked about reforming Congress:
Olszewski: “What our congressmen and congresswomen have to understand is that if you’re in the House, the House belongs to the people, and they need to, first and foremost, represent you, not themselves, not special interests. It’s not about sound-bites. It’s about actually getting work done and governing.” Olszewski said the House needs to pass a budget based on 12 agency appropriations bills before the end of each federal fiscal year, a process known as “regular order.”
Flint: “We need to return to regular order and get single-subject bills and get these appropriations bills done one by one. If they can’t get a budget done, they shouldn’t get paid. And we need a ban on congressional stock trading. Because I think part of the reason why the American people are so frustrated with Congress right now is because … they believe that Congress is so useless, because we’ve got some of these politicians back there that are getting rich off the backs of taxpayers.”
Neither candidate offered a plan for cutting taxes, once a staple of Republican platforms. Both supported reductions in federal spending without identifying particular cuts.
Voting in Montana’s 2026 primary election begins May 4 and ends June 2.
POLSON, Mont. — Two motorcyclists crashed on Highway 35 near Polson after failing to negotiate a left-hand curve, leaving one man dead and another hospitalized, according to the Montana Highway Patrol.
Two motorcycles were traveling southbound on Highway 35 when both drifted into a guardrail. Both drivers were separated from their motorcycles and ended up on the other side of the guardrail.
A 58-year-old Polson man was confirmed dead at the scene. The second driver, a 45-year-old man, also from Polson, was taken to the hospital with injuries.
Alcohol is a suspected factor in the crash, according to the Montana Highway Patrol.
The crash is under investigation.
KALISPELL — A Flathead County man is turning a personal rock bottom into a lifeline for his community by starting a free, late-night ride service to keep drunk drivers off the roads.
Adam Bruzza started Big Sky Sobriety Shuttle LLC, a free ride share service for people who have been drinking, after realizing he was struggling with addiction.
Maddie Keifer reports – watch the video here:
MT man starts free, late-night ride service to keep drunk drivers off the roads
“I just wanted to give people who do still drink the option for a safe, sober ride home,” Bruzza said.
Bruzza said a devastating mistake behind the wheel became a turning point where he decided enough was enough.
“I was charged with a DUI October 22 of 2024,” Bruzza said.
After a few months focused on his sobriety, Bruzza channeled his energy into his community by starting the shuttle service.
He operates the shuttle in his personal pickup truck. Riders can reach him by phone, text or social media at any time of day or night at no cost.
“I just wanted to give others the opportunity to not get a life changing charge,” Bruzza said.
Bruzza works with bars to connect riders with his service. Although the Big Sky Sobriety Shuttle is a new endeavor, he has already seen a big impact.
“The community response without a doubt has been unconditional love and support that makes my heart all warm and fuzzy,” Bruzza said.
Bruzza also shared a message for others who may be struggling with addiction.
“Your life is worth it, there are people that care out there and it is okay to ask for help,” Bruzza said.
To learn more, click here to visit the Facebook page.
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