Post by griz on Feb 28, 2011 15:42:06 GMT -5
missoulian.com/college/griz/article_5320cd36-4214-11e0-8594-001cc4c03286.html
Griz fall to Eastern Washington 59-55 in overtime
CHENEY, Wash. - The disappointment was etched on Brian Qvale's face.
The frustration was evident in his halting speech.
Montana's lone senior had the opportunity to help his team bring the Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament to Missoula for the first time in more than a decade, but it wasn't to be.
Glen Dean made clutch play after clutch play to bring Eastern Washington back from a 10-point, second-half deficit to a 59-55 overtime win over Montana in front of 1,736 fans - at least half wearing maroon - and a regional television audience Saturday at Reese Court.
Mathematically, the Griz could still host the tournament. Realistically, it would take some minor miracles. Montana closed out the regular season at 12-4 in league, 20-9 overall, and fell into second place behind Northern Colorado. The Bears moved to 11-3 in league with a 72-71 win over Northern Arizona on Saturday in Greeley, Colo., and finish with games against cellar dwellers Idaho State and Sacramento State. It's now the Bears' tournament to lose.
"I can't even express my disappointment," Qvale said, choking back the emotion. "But the season's not over yet. That was tough."
He's right. The season's not over. While thoughts of hosting the tournament are all but dashed, the Griz could still gain the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. At worst, they'll host the No. 6 seed in a quarterfinal game Saturday. It could very well be against these same Eastern Washington Eagles, who clinched a spot in the tournament with the win.
"We knew what was hanging in the balance for us if we got this one," Montana coach Wayne Tinkle said. "As much heart as our guys showed in battling through a ton of adversity in this situation, it's really sad to see it slip away and kind of have it taken from us."
After taking their largest lead of the game at 37-27, the Griz missed five of their next seven shots while Eastern found its range. Dean scored all but one of the points in an 11-2 burst that gave Eastern a 44-41 lead with 2:42 to play.
The lead see-sawed until Qvale knotted it at 46-46 with two free throws with 34 seconds left. The Griz weathered one last possession by the Eagles to send the game to overtime.
Again, the lead went back and forth until the pivotal possession. With the scored tied at 53-53, the Griz bottled up the Eagles and Derek Selvig rejected a shot by Cliff Ederaine. A mad scramble for the carom ensued. Cliff Colimon was able to get the ball out to Dean, whose 3-pointer as the shot clock sounded was true, putting Eastern on top 56-53.
"We were playing tough defense, flying all over, switching, getting to shooters," Qvale said. "All that hustle led to him being open because we were hustling so well. There was nothing we could really do about it."
Shawn Stockton and Will Cherry both missed treys that could have tied it and the Eagles sealed the deal when Laron Griffin broke away for a dunk with 6.4 seconds to play.
The Griz could never get any sustained offense going. The Eagles double-teamed Qvale every time he touched the ball.
"They had a Big East mentality of thug them and mug them in there," Tinkle said. "That made it tough on Brian. The aggressor wins in those types of situations and then you add the fact that we weren't making shots."
When Qvale kicked it out to shooters at the 3-point line, they missed 17 out of 20 times.
"If we had been knocking them down, we would've blown this game wide open," said Cherry, who finished with just five points after scoring 24 at Portland State two nights earlier. "That was the difference today. The same shots that were falling at Portland State weren't falling tonight."
Qvale and Art Steward led the Griz with 12 points apiece. Qvale became the 26th Grizzly to reach the 1,000-point plateau for his career and now stands at 1,004.
"Qvale is so good," EWU coach Kirk Earlywine said. "I mean so big, so good, so smart. We knew we were going to have to commit an extra defender to him. We couldn't guard him with one guy. Our help defenders were really alert."
Backing up Dean were Ederaine with 14 points and Colimon with 13. But it was the Dean show in the second half.
"I'm hoping we saw a step in the maturation process of Glen Dean," Earlywine said. "He didn't take a shot in the first half. Thursday night against Montana State he played the worst game of his career at Eastern, but it was because he was trying so hard. ... I can live with that. I talked to him yesterday and told him to relax and No. 1, run our team.
"It's a very difficult thing for a scoring point guard to have the feel during the course of a game of when to run the team and when to try to score, when to be aggressive and when to run the team. I thought Glen was spectacular tonight and not the 17 points, it was the fact that he was willing to run our team."
Sports editor Bob Meseroll can be reached at 523-5265 or at sportsdesk@missoulian.com.
Griz fall to Eastern Washington 59-55 in overtime
CHENEY, Wash. - The disappointment was etched on Brian Qvale's face.
The frustration was evident in his halting speech.
Montana's lone senior had the opportunity to help his team bring the Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament to Missoula for the first time in more than a decade, but it wasn't to be.
Glen Dean made clutch play after clutch play to bring Eastern Washington back from a 10-point, second-half deficit to a 59-55 overtime win over Montana in front of 1,736 fans - at least half wearing maroon - and a regional television audience Saturday at Reese Court.
Mathematically, the Griz could still host the tournament. Realistically, it would take some minor miracles. Montana closed out the regular season at 12-4 in league, 20-9 overall, and fell into second place behind Northern Colorado. The Bears moved to 11-3 in league with a 72-71 win over Northern Arizona on Saturday in Greeley, Colo., and finish with games against cellar dwellers Idaho State and Sacramento State. It's now the Bears' tournament to lose.
"I can't even express my disappointment," Qvale said, choking back the emotion. "But the season's not over yet. That was tough."
He's right. The season's not over. While thoughts of hosting the tournament are all but dashed, the Griz could still gain the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. At worst, they'll host the No. 6 seed in a quarterfinal game Saturday. It could very well be against these same Eastern Washington Eagles, who clinched a spot in the tournament with the win.
"We knew what was hanging in the balance for us if we got this one," Montana coach Wayne Tinkle said. "As much heart as our guys showed in battling through a ton of adversity in this situation, it's really sad to see it slip away and kind of have it taken from us."
After taking their largest lead of the game at 37-27, the Griz missed five of their next seven shots while Eastern found its range. Dean scored all but one of the points in an 11-2 burst that gave Eastern a 44-41 lead with 2:42 to play.
The lead see-sawed until Qvale knotted it at 46-46 with two free throws with 34 seconds left. The Griz weathered one last possession by the Eagles to send the game to overtime.
Again, the lead went back and forth until the pivotal possession. With the scored tied at 53-53, the Griz bottled up the Eagles and Derek Selvig rejected a shot by Cliff Ederaine. A mad scramble for the carom ensued. Cliff Colimon was able to get the ball out to Dean, whose 3-pointer as the shot clock sounded was true, putting Eastern on top 56-53.
"We were playing tough defense, flying all over, switching, getting to shooters," Qvale said. "All that hustle led to him being open because we were hustling so well. There was nothing we could really do about it."
Shawn Stockton and Will Cherry both missed treys that could have tied it and the Eagles sealed the deal when Laron Griffin broke away for a dunk with 6.4 seconds to play.
The Griz could never get any sustained offense going. The Eagles double-teamed Qvale every time he touched the ball.
"They had a Big East mentality of thug them and mug them in there," Tinkle said. "That made it tough on Brian. The aggressor wins in those types of situations and then you add the fact that we weren't making shots."
When Qvale kicked it out to shooters at the 3-point line, they missed 17 out of 20 times.
"If we had been knocking them down, we would've blown this game wide open," said Cherry, who finished with just five points after scoring 24 at Portland State two nights earlier. "That was the difference today. The same shots that were falling at Portland State weren't falling tonight."
Qvale and Art Steward led the Griz with 12 points apiece. Qvale became the 26th Grizzly to reach the 1,000-point plateau for his career and now stands at 1,004.
"Qvale is so good," EWU coach Kirk Earlywine said. "I mean so big, so good, so smart. We knew we were going to have to commit an extra defender to him. We couldn't guard him with one guy. Our help defenders were really alert."
Backing up Dean were Ederaine with 14 points and Colimon with 13. But it was the Dean show in the second half.
"I'm hoping we saw a step in the maturation process of Glen Dean," Earlywine said. "He didn't take a shot in the first half. Thursday night against Montana State he played the worst game of his career at Eastern, but it was because he was trying so hard. ... I can live with that. I talked to him yesterday and told him to relax and No. 1, run our team.
"It's a very difficult thing for a scoring point guard to have the feel during the course of a game of when to run the team and when to try to score, when to be aggressive and when to run the team. I thought Glen was spectacular tonight and not the 17 points, it was the fact that he was willing to run our team."
Sports editor Bob Meseroll can be reached at 523-5265 or at sportsdesk@missoulian.com.