Griz 83, NAU 79, Great game by Griz

[TrueGriz]

Griz beat NAU in a close thriller.

Criswell played one hell of a good second half.

Matt Martin and Andrew Strait played one hell of a first half.

Dlouhy played one hell of a game. Much though is not told about how good of a game from the box score though. He just offers himself as the spark for the team with his athleticism, hussle, and defense.

NAU played one hell of a first half.

Griz played one hell of a second half. Griz's second half was better than NAU's first half.

Leading scorers for Griz:

Andrew Strait with 22 points, 14 of them in first half. Also, pulled down 8 rebounds. Played 35 minutes. Also, for a 56% freethrow shooter coming in, he came up huge on the freethrow line this game. Nailed all 4 freethrows, and they were clutch.

Criswell scored 20 points, 4 steals, 5 assists, 11 rebounds. He scored 16 points in the second half.

Matt Martin scored 16, 14 points in the first half, had 4 assists, but did have 7 turnovers. 4 of them in the second half.

Dlouhy scored 10 points, snared 9 rebounds, and 2 steals.

I really liked this game a lot. Especially after the loss to MSU in the final seconds. This game came so close to finishing out like the game against MSU, but this time, the Griz defense came up big, with a steal that lead to a foul on Dlouhy. Freethrows than put the game away.

 

[Grizbeer]

It was a great game, very close and exciting - I think the biggest lead was 7 points.

Seyfert was hesitant to take a shot for whatever reason, but Strait made up for it. Dloughy was all over the court, but he had a hard time staying with his guy (Golob, I think?) running around screens.

I'm not sure what the final rebounding margin was, but for a while there the Griz were getting out-rebounded, which surprised me. NAU seemed to get a lot more 2nd chance points as well.

Easley was kind of a liability on the court, and I think all 4 of his fouls were not smart - 2 on the offensive end I believe.

Martin is coming along nicely, for a long time he and Strait accounted for most of the scoring - if both of these guys improve next year the Griz should have a nice team.

Weird stat of the game - at one point in the game Criswell was 2/5 from the line, Seyfert was 3/4 from the line, and the Griz were 10/14 - not very often when the rest of the team outshoots Criswell from the line, you knew that was going to change.

Griz also started out 2/4 from 3 point range, and at one point in the first half were I think 5/18, so if the Griz could have hit more than 3 of those 14 shots in between they might have put a good run on NAU.
I think the formula to beat the Griz is set - full court press on defense, and shoot threes on offense. Against teams that are good at that the Griz will struggle.

 

[sdgriz1]

After listening to this game, the two freshmen definately carried the Griz in this game. Without their first halves, the griz would have been out of it. I am for more of an uptempo style like we played in the first half. I think we could play a little better in this style. Great job Criswell for that second half, he sealed the deal.

 

[GrizWhiz]

The second half featured a courageous effort by Criswell. He literally hustled and worked his way through his first half shooting woes. He was relentless in the 2nd half. Dlouhy started, hit an early 3 then was quiet the rest of the first half. He really came to life in the 2nd half and was all over the court. Strait and Martin (both true freshman) did carry the GRIZ in the 1st half although Martin did have at least 7 turnovers for the game. Farr did a nice job coming off of the bench and had 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 or 4 assists. Not much other help off the bench though. The offense seemed to disappear when Lynch (0 points) came in for Martin. I still wonder why Lynch plays and Matthews doesn't. I suspect if Davis returns, Easley will play very little. This was a very exciting game. I wouln't mind a couple of relaxing blowout wins though.

 

[Proud Griz Man]

Thanks for the good updates guys. I was jazzed that the Griz bounced back with a win last night.

 

[BARN BALL]

Great game. It would be nice to know how it was going to end so I could set back and enjoy it. Not very often you are going to see 88 points a half. It does not get much better than that. The only negative early turned into a major positive in the end when Criswell went from bad to Best.

 

[BWahlberg]

First Men's game I went to this year, it was fun!

Also another guy who proved as a "spark" who didn't jump out in the stats column is Lamarr Farr.

There was a point late in the 1st period where he made a few shots in a row, and saved a tipped pass from going out of bounds, grabbed a board or two, and broke up a pass. People we clapping for him b/c at one point he seemed to be the only guy playing really hard on the court.

Last night the Griz really showed their potential, wow!

 

[BARN BALL]

First Men's game I went to this year, it was fun!

Also another guy who proved as a "spark" who didn't jump out in the stats column is Lamarr Farr.

There was a point late in the 1st period where he made a few shots in a row, and saved a tipped pass from going out of bounds, grabbed a board or two, and broke up a pass. People we clapping for him b/c at one point he seemed to be the only guy playing really hard on the court.

Last night the Griz really showed their potential, wow!

Wow is the word. I could not figure the Farr deal out and then I realized he was leading the team in assists. Last night was his best game at home. If you have not been watching men Griz wow can be the word at times for Dlouhy, Criswell, Davis, Martin, and Strait. Seyfert has shocked and amazed. Mathews has had a moment but is not getting the time and McKay is ok in special situations. And Lynch helped on defending the three against NAU. The Griz are fun but NAU sets a different pace and the coaches have been ready for the different styles we have seen.,