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.”
Montana
Montana Supreme Court Decides International Child Custody Case – Transnational Litigation Blog
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act discourages forum shopping in child custody disputes by assigning subject-matter jurisdiction to the court located in the “home state” of the child. In Allen v. Allen, decided on April 21, 2026, the Montana Supreme Court had to determine whether the child’s “home state” was Montana or the Netherlands. This case shines an important spotlight on the importance of timing in international child custody disputes. The left-behind parent’s likelihood of success is strongly correlated with how quickly he or she acts to vindicate their legal rights.
Facts
Jonathan Edward Allen (Father) and Petronella Gerline (Van Oosterom) Allen (Mother) were married in Colorado in 2009. Father is a United States citizen. Mother is a dual citizen of the United States and the Netherlands. Their child (R.A.A.) was born in 2015. In 2020, the family moved from Colorado to Montana.
In August 2023, after Father and Mother began having marital difficulties, Mother and R.A.A. relocated to the Netherlands. In February 2024, Mother filed a petition for divorce and custody with the District Court of Central Netherlands (Netherlands District Court).
In January 2025, Father filed a petition with the District Court of The Hague seeking the return of R.A.A. pursuant to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. This petition was denied. Although the court held that R.A.A. had been wrongfully removed from the United States, the court reasoned that the one-year automatic return period had passed and that R.A.A. had become settled in her new environment in the Netherlands. This decision was affirmed on appeal.
In September 2025, Father filed an Emergency Motion for Temporary Custody and Petition for Permanent Parenting Plan in Montana state court. That court dismissed the petition on the grounds that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. Specifically, it held that it lacked the power to adjudicate the dispute because Montana was no longer the “home state” of R.A.A. Father, acting pro se, appealed to the Montana Supreme Court.
Analysis
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) assigns exclusive subject-matter jurisdiction to courts located in the child’s “home state” when it comes to matters relating to child custody. The “home state” is “the state in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as parent for at least 6 consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding.” The UCCJEA specifically provides that courts “shall treat a foreign country as if it were a state of the United States” for purposes of resolving these disputes.
On the facts presented in Allen v. Allen, the Montana Supreme Court correctly held that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to consider Father’s emergency motion. Mother and R.A.A. relocated to the Netherlands in August 2023. Six months later—in February 2024—R.A.A.’s home state shifted to the Netherlands. The Dutch courts—rather than the Montana courts—now had exclusive subject-matter jurisdiction to resolve custody disputes involving R.A.A. Father did not file his motion in Montana until September 2025, which was nineteen months too late.
Conclusion
If Father had filed his suit in Montana before February 2024, he could have shown that Montana was R.A.A.’s “home state” because the child had not yet resided in the Netherlands for six months. The suit was, however, not filed until September 2025.
If Father had filed suit in the Netherlands before August 2024, he could have argued that R.A.A. should be returned to the United States pursuant to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction because the child had not yet resided in the Netherlands for a year. The suit was, however, not filed until January 2025.
The key takeaway of Allen v. Allen is the need for speed in international child custody cases. The timelines baked into the relevant laws and treaties mandate that the left-behind parent move quickly to assert their rights. If they are slow off the mark, they be forced to litigate in foreign courts under less favorable legal rules.
MISSOULA, Mont. — The Clark Fork River has long been a defining feature of Missoula, shaping the city’s culture, economy and outdoor lifestyle.
The river is so closely tied to the area that it helped inspire the well-known book and film “A River Runs Through It.” But local conservation advocates say its importance goes far beyond scenery.
“Without the Clark Fork River, Missoula would just be another town,” said Lisa Ronald, Northern Rockies associate conservation director for American Rivers. “We wouldn’t be the River City. I think we’re known in Montana as Missoula the River City, and it’s really because of the Clark Fork River and its central role in business, in economics, in recreation, that really makes Missoula the town that it is.”
Carmen Murill, a field organizer with Wild Montana, said the river is deeply woven into daily life for people who live in Missoula.
“A lot of us would wonder what to do on a beautiful or a rainy summer day,” Murill said. “I mean, it’s really a lifeforce of town. And I think it’s pretty unique that Missoula, as a community is living and breathing on both sides of the river. It’s really like two downtowns but connected by the Clark Fork.”
Conservation groups say protecting the river begins with community involvement.
Advocates encourage residents and visitors to spend time outdoors, whether on a trail, in the woods or along the river, and to learn how they can become better stewards of the environment.
MISSOULA — Sam Forstag edged out Ryan Busse to secure the Democratic nomination in Montana’s 1st Congressional District.
Busse conceded the race to Forstag on Wednesday morning. Forstag had trailed behind Busse Tuesday evening, but he made up ground as the votes were counted into the early hours of Wednesday morning. The other two candidates in the race, Russl Cleveland and Matt Rains, are sitting at third and fourth, respectively.
Forstag leads in close race for Montana’s 1st Congressional District
Forstag spent eight years as a wildland firefighter, including four as a smokejumper, and he’s been vice president of the local National Federation of Federal Employees union. Last week, U.S. House of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, held a rally in Missoula to support Forstag’s campaign.
He told MTN on Tuesday that his campaign has been for the working class.
“We got a whole lot of people here that have been working their tail off to finally get some working-class representation in Washington,” Forstag noted. “So proud of everything we’ve done and so grateful.”
Forstag further noted he wants Montanans to be able to afford groceries, have universal free childcare and restore and expand Affordable Health Care Act subsidies.
“Hearing people’s stories and struggles and commonalities in the ways that we’re all fighting in the system that does not serve us so often, and the government serves corporations and the richest people in this country more than working people. It has been frustrating and saddening, but it has also inspired so much hope in me, like the fixes we can actually make,” he told MTN.
The 1st Congressional District covers much of western Montana, including Kalispell, Missoula, Butte and Bozeman. It is currently held by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, who chose not to seek reelection.
By securing the nomination, Forstag is slated tol face off against Libertarian candidate Nick Sheedy and Republican candidate Aaron Flint in November.
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