. . . the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks fell victim to the best defense in the Big Sky Conference Saturday night in Missoula. Turning a one-point lead late in the first half into a 28-point advantage midway through the second, the Montana Grizzlies remained perfect in the Big Sky with a 82-64 victory. Northern Arizona played without JoJo Anderson and Lenell Henry for the second straight game, with Anderson missing the rematch against the team he scored his career-high 31 points against in late December.
Only down 24-23 after Chris Bowling hit a 3-pointer with 5:01 left in the first half, Northern Arizona (4-18, 1-8 Big Sky) proceeded to miss its final three shots from the field and commit five turnovers while scoring one point the remainder of the half. Montana (16-5, 9-0) turned the 7-1 spurt into a 35-8 run extending the first 6:30 of the second half. After Brooks DeBisschop and Torry Johnson connected on Northern Arizona's first two shots out of halftime, the Lumberjacks missed four of their next five shots.
Meanwhile, the Grizzlies hit 13 of 14 shots from the field spanning the end of the first half until a 3-pointer by Timmy Falls with 13:31 left in the game. The run included seven 3-pointers for Montana, which finished the game 12 of 28 from 3-point range and 34 of 62 overall. . . . After committing 13 or less turnovers in six straight games, the 22 were the Lumberjacks' most since their game at Cal State Baskersfield at the start of December a run of 13 games. Montana scored 32 of its 82 points off of Northern Arizona's miscues, while allowing just 11 points off of its own 15 turnovers. Michael Oguine led the Grizzlies with 23 points, followed by 17 for Jamar Akoh, who hit 8 of 9 from the field.
