Frey Buzzer Beater Breaks UNCG Hearts; Bobcats Defeat Spartans

Saturday, November 16

Greensboro, NC

4 p.m.

Montana State University

3-1

UNCG

3-2

Montana State

UNCG

Photo by: Jack Murrey

Frey Buzzer Beater Breaks UNCG Hearts; Bobcats Defeat Spartans

11/16/2019 9:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Harald Frey made arguably the biggest shot of his Montana State career and beat the buzzers in Greensboro Saturday

By: Andrew Pedersen

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The moment wasn't too big for Montana State's senior guard. UNCG guard Isaiah Miller broke up a 64-64 tie by scoring on a contested layup to put the host Spartans ahead by two with 3.5 seconds remaining.

That's when Harald Frey stepped up to make arguably his best shot as a Bobcat yet.

Frey received the inbounds pass from Amin Adamu on the right side of the court. He cut into the middle and launched a shot from over 50 feet – and on the edge of the Spartans' half court logo – with about a second remaining on the clock.

The heave by the lefty point guard banked in off the glass and fell through the net as the buzzers sounded. Montana State beat UNCG, 67-66, in a back-and-forth men's basketball nonconference battle that featured eight lead changes in Fleming Gymnasium on Saturday, Nov. 16.

"You don't always win in that fashion," Frey said. "It was crazy and I haven't really grasped it yet. But that was a team win. Regardless if that shot goes in, I think we played a really good game and one that we can build on."

UNCG (3-2) utilized a full court press for a majority of the game and it started to cause problems for Montana State toward the end of the first. MSU took a 13-12 lead with 9:05 left in the first half when Borja Fernandez drained a 3 resulting in a Spartan called timeout.

UNCG rallied hitting two consecutive 3-pointers and started to convert offensively. After MSU cut a seven-point deficit down to four, the Spartans scored six of the next seven points to take their largest lead of the contest, 33-24.

The Bobcats wouldn't go away before the end of the half. Frey knocked down two free throws with less than a minute on the clock, then hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds on the clock to push the Bobcats to down four at halftime.

The second half was a tug of war between the two sides.

MSU opened the final 20 minutes with a Jubrile Belo dunk, an Adamu jumper and Devin Kirby layup to retake the lead. UNCG tied things up on the ensuing possession before the Bobcats ripped off seven straight points to take their largest lead of the night.

The Spartans wouldn't give up easily on their home court.

MSU and UNCG swapped leads twice before the Bobcats got up 53-47 on an Adamu layup. The Spartans followed by going on an 8-0 run punctuated by a Malik Massey 3-pointer. Mychael Paulo tied it briefly with a jumper, but for the remaining five minutes UNCG held an advantage.

The Spartans had a six-point edge with 3:20 to go, but MSU continued to play tough. Belo scored MSU's next four points on dunks and Frey hit two clutch free throws with less than a minute left to lead to the heroics at the end of 40 minutes.

"I can't even express how proud I am of the guys," Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle said. "Just how they fought and how resilient they were. UNCG made some big time runs, some big time shots, their crowd got going, but our guys stayed composed and disciplined.

"They also executed. Against that press for 40 minutes, I knew we were going to turn the ball over. For the most part we didn't have too many live ball turnovers where they could score right away."

Montana State had four double digit scorers in the game. Belo had a team-high 15 points, while Frey (14), Paulo (11) and Ladan Ricketts (11) followed. Frey had an MSU-high 7 assists and tied with Adamu for a Bobcat best 7 rebounds.

Montana State outshot UNCG by a 52.5-36.2% margin from the field. The Bobcats also went 18-for-23 from the free throw line (78.3%) while the Spartans made 5 of 10. Despite shooting 2 of 9 from the field prior to his buzzer beater, Frey knew that the results of the contest may come down to the last shot.

"I thought it was a hard fought game back and forth," Frey said. "We played a really good team tonight that won 29 games last year. We talked about having to bring it and we thought if we played solid defense, rebounded and took care of the ball that we would have a chance to win at the end. That's exactly what happened."

UNCG forced MSU to commit 21 turnovers and had 12 steals. The Bobcats kept up with the Spartans with a 34-29 edge on the boards and were 50% from deep converting on seven 3-pointers. In the end, the Bobcats were able to withstand UNCG shooting over 43% in the second half and taking a brief lead with only seconds left on the clock. The Spartans had four double digit scorers and were led by Miller who had 20 points with 3 steals.

"Our guys kept fighting," Sprinkle said. "We made timely free throws and made some 3s. Ladan Ricketts had some timely shots, Jubrile (Belo) had some monster dunks late, Zeke Quinlan had some big time rebounds. It's got to be a team effort for us. We got to get 12 guys contributing every night and I think we did that tonight."

Montana State improved to 3-1 this season with Saturday night's victory. The Bobcats will play for Spartan Invitational title honors at 10 a.m. MDT when they take on Tennessee Tech in Fleming Gymnasium.