Bobcats Roll Past Tommies, 82-65

Thursday, December 8

BOZEMAN

7 p.m.

Montana State University

5-5,0-0Big Sky

St. Thomas

7-4,0-0Summit League

St. Thomas (MN)

Montana St.

Patrick McMahon

Photo by: Thomas Anderson

12/8/2022 10:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Six Bobcats finished in double-figures and 10 different players scored in Thursday night’s win.

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Going into the Montana State men's basketball team's game against St. Thomas, the matchup was billed on paper as one between the Bobcats' resurgent team defense versus St. Thomas' top-10 offense.

Yet for 40 minutes in Worthington Arena on Thursday, the roles were reversed: Montana State had the better offense and defense.

Ten different Bobcats scored and six finished in double-figures as Montana State's balanced offensive attack rolled past St. Thomas in an 82-65 win. From the get-go, the Bobcats (5-5) out-shot the St. Thomas Tommies (7-4) in the first half, connecting on 48.1% of their field goals compared to St. Thomas' 27.6%. This trend continued throughout the game as MSU made over 50% of its field goal attempts for the second-straight game — all while holding the Tommies to a season-low 27.6% shooting from the field.

"Scoring didn't win us the game — I thought we defended a very good offensive team," Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle told Bobcat Sports Radio Network. "To hold them to 27% shooting, and that's with them making a few shots late in the game, was tremendous. But credit to our guys. From both a focus and an attention-to-detail standpoint during their practices on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm not surprised with how well they played tonight."

Patrick McMahon came off the bench to lead Montana State with a career-high 14 points — including a stretch in the second half where he scored six-consecutive points for the Bobcats. Caleb Fuller added 11 points and six rebounds in his first start in an MSU uniform, plus Jubrile Belo, RaeQuan Battle, Robert Ford III and Sam Lecholat all finished with 10 points apiece.

Battle opened up the scoring with a deep three, then Tyler Patterson's steal on the sideline led to an easy layup for Darius Brown II to put the Bobcats up 7-6. Montana State only trailed by as many as one point for 3 minutes and 45 seconds in the first half before Great Osobor's layup gave the Bobcats a 9-8 lead with 12:58 to play.

From that point forward, the Bobcats had a lead it wouldn't relinquish.

The second unit stepped up early in the first half. Sam Lecholat scored six-straight points for MSU — first off a corner three, and then off a put-back that led to an and-one opportunity. But the Bobcats delivered an early knockout blow during a 1 minute and 12-second stretch midway through the first half as McMahon drained a three, then Ford III nailed difficult back-to-back threes to put the Bobcats up 27-14 with 7:43 to go.

"That gave us some confidence," Sprinkle said of the bench's performance in the first half. "We kept our foot on the pedal. If we could've made our wide-open shots and layups, we probably could've hit 100 points. Eventually, those shots are going to start falling."

Jed Miller checked into the game and immediately made an impact with his passing and his scoring. He found Fuller for an easy layup, then he drained a three that put MSU up by 14 points. The highlight of the first half came courtesy of Fuller who threw down a two-handed slam in transition that made it a 36-20 ballgame in favor of MSU with 4:10 to go.

Holding a 41-30 advantage at halftime, the Bobcats went on a 10-0 run that was sparked by a put-back dunk from Belo. Thanks to a personal 6-0 run from McMahon which included a thunderous tomahawk dunk, MSU held the Tommies within 19 points until Belo's transition dunk with 10:04 gave the hosts a 64-43 lead — their largest of the night.

Sensing MSU would pull away for good, St. Thomas used a full-court press to try to get back into the game. A few deep threes from leading scorer Andrew Rohde, who finished with a game-high 22 points on 6-for-19 shooting, cut the deficit to 10, yet the Bobcats' interior scoring and a few ill-advised St. Thomas threes early in the shot clock put the comeback fears to rest. The Bobcats, who went 11-for-12 from the charity stripe, made all six of their free throws in the final four minutes to come away with the 82-65 win.

"We need the fans to go to the football game, hopefully, get a little bit of sleep, then come back out on Saturday," Sprinkle said. "We need this place rocking because Omaha is really good."

The Bobcats wrap up the week by hosting Nebraska Omaha on Saturday at 4 p.m. Admission is $5 with a ticket stub from Montana State football's FCS Quarterfinal game against William & Mary. Season tickets and single-game tickets for all remaining home games can be found on msubobcats.info/tickets.