Montana State University
Kansas City
MSU Hosts Kansas City in Big Sky-Summit Challenge
12/6/2024 2:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Montana State men’s basketball plays one last home game on Saturday night before 33-day stretch away from Worthington Arena
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Winners of three of their last four, Montana State men's basketball returns to Worthington Arena for the final time in December on Saturday, hosting Kansas City to wrap up the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.
Tip is set for 7 p.m.
The game will be streamed on ESPN+, with live radio play-by-play from Voice of the Bobcats Keaton Gillogly airing on the Bobcat Sports Network.
Tickets are available here. Fans who present tickets from Saturday's football playoff game against UT Martin will receive a discounted rate of $5 for Saturday's night contest in the Brick.
Saturday's game against Kansas City will be the final home game for the Bobcats until January 9th. Montana State hits the road for three straight non-conference contests to close out the month (USC, UC Riverside, and TCU) before opening up Big Sky play in January at Idaho (Jan. 2) and Eastern Washington (Jan. 4).
Montana State is coming off their first road win of the year, a 76-65 triumph over Omaha in the first leg of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge. Brandon Walker's 17 points led four in double-figures for the Cats, who dished out 17 assists and never trailed in the second half.
Saturday will be a reunion of sorts for assistant coach Xavier Bishop, who spent three seasons as the point guard for Kansas City before transferring to spend his final two years at Montana State. In Bozeman, Bishop earned All-Big Sky recognition twice and led the Cats to the NCAA Tournament in his final year, getting selected 2022 Big Sky Tournament MVP.
Kansas City (4-6) lost to Idaho, 82-77, on Wednesday in the first leg of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.
All four of the Roos' wins this year have come against non-NCAA Division I opponents.
FINDING THE GROOVE
After starting the season with four of their first five games on the road against a handful of high-major opponents, Montana State has won three of their last four games, with the lone loss coming to overtime to a strong CSUN team. On Wednesday night during the first leg of the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge, the Cats earned their first road win of the season with a 76-65 triumph over Omaha. Led by Brandon Walker's 17 points, MSU had four score in double-figures and dished out 17 assists as part of an encouraging team win. Junior guard Jed Miller recorded his best game as a Bobcat, scoring ten points off the bench with three assists.
CONSISTENT B WALK
Brandon Walker has scored at least nine points in every game this season, scoring in double-figures in each of the last eight games. The forward ranks fifth in the Big Sky in field goal percentage (51.9%) and ninth in scoring (14.1 ppg).
BEEN AROUND THE BLOCK
Montana State is one of the most experienced teams in the country in 2024-25, boasting five players in the rotation who have played in at least 111 games (Jabe Mullins, Tyler Patterson, Brian Goracke, Max Agbonkpolo, Sam Lecholat), and nine players who have at least four years in college basketball. Tyler Patterson has started 126 games in a Montana State uniform entering Saturday, the most of any active player at one school in the country and the most in Montana State history.
FAMILIAR FACE
Xavier Bishop, one of the best point guards in Bobcat history, was hired as an assistant coach to Matt Logie's staff this summer. The two-time All-Big Sky selection and 2022 Big Sky Tournament MVP started his college career with three seasons playing for the Roos in Kansas City, appearing in over 100 games with 60 starts. Bishop then transferred to Montana State following a coaching change in Kansas City and went on to lead the Bobcats to the first of now three straight NCAA Tournament appearances with a Big Sky title in 2022.
LETTING IT RAIN
After a slow start shooting the ball from the outside, Montana State has pushed the percentages back to their projected ranges. The Bobcats are 18th in NCAA Division I in reliance on three-point shooting, with 40.5% of their points coming on 3-pointers. MSU ranks 42nd in the country in three-point percentage (38.1%)
ONE LAST RIDE
After a long and winding college basketball journey, Max Agbonkpolo is enjoying his swan song. The graduate student playing at his fourth school is enjoying a career-best year across the board after stops at USC, Wyoming, and Utah State. The native of Laguna Niguel, California, has scored at least 13 points in four of his last five games, highlighted by a career-high 21-point outburst against CSUN on November 30. Over his last three outings, the 6-foot-9 forward is 9 of 17 from beyond the arc (52.9%) and has secured seven rebounds in all three games.
POINT GUARD JABE
Playing in an off-ball role across two years at Saint Mary's and two more at Washington State, graduate student Jabe Mullins is thriving in the point guard spot for Montana State this year. Mullins ranks fifth in the Big Sky in steals (15) and sixth in assists (35), and is third on the team in scoring, averaging 9.8 points per game.
LONG AND ATHLETIC
Montana State's average on-court height of 78.7" ranks 13th in the country. All five of the Bobcats' starters in all nine games are at least 6-feet-6-inches.
REUNITED
Jabe Mullins and Tyler Patterson reunite on the 2024-25 Montana State men's basketball team after playing together growing up in the Seattle area. Patterson and Mullins have been playing together since they were third-graders, and will close out their college careers together in Bozeman this season. The duo led Mount Si to the 2020 WIAA state title, the school's first state championship since 1977, before Mullins accepted a scholarship as the No. 1 player in the state of Washington to play for Saint Mary's (2020-22) and then Washington State (2022-24). Patterson committed to Montana State out of high school, where he has played in four Big Sky Tournament Championship games and won three rings for the Bobcats.
GOLDEN AGE OF BOBCAT BASKETBALL
The Bobcats are coming off of their three best seasons in the modern era. In 2021-22, Montana State went 27-8, which included a 13-1 record at home and a program-record 16 wins in conference play. In 2022-2023, Montana State went 25-10, collected a 12-1 record at Worthington Arena, and went 15-3 in conference action. Montana State has played in four straight Big Sky Tournament championship games, gone 49-16 against Big Sky opponents over the last three seasons, and made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history.
THE MATT LOGIE FILE
Second-year MSU head coach Matt Logie Logie has taken his teams to the NCAA Tournament in 12 of his 13 seasons as a head coach, and is believed to be just the second men's coach in history to lead teams to the Big Dance at the Division I, Division II, and Division III levels (Tobin Anderson). Logie came to Montana State after four seasons at Point Loma in California, where his teams rolled up an 82-23 record with three conference championships. His 13 seasons as a head basketball coach includes eight at Whitworth University in Spokane (2011-19), where his Pirates compiled a 194-35 record.
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