No date to the dance

While the Weber State University Men’s Basketball Team seemed to have the Big Sky Conference Championship in hand, the University of Montana had other plans. After scoring only eight points in the first half, UM senior Anthony Johnson scored 36 points in the second half, including UM’s final 21 points, fueling his team to erase a 20-point halftime lead and defeat the Wildcats 66-65.
“I’ll tell you what,” said Head Coach Randy Rahe, “I’ve got an unbelievable group of kids that compete their tails off every possession. They do everything we ask them to do and not only that, they’re unbelievable students, they’re high character, they do things the right way and it’s too bad something like this has to happen, but in life stuff happens and you have to deal with it. You have to deal with it and we’re going to deal with it.”
With just over 50 seconds left in the second half, the Grizzlies took their first lead of the game. The lead was short-lived, however, as sophomore Damian Lillard was fouled and made both free throws to give WSU a 65-64 lead. The Wildcats came up with the steal on the next possession, and junior Franklin Session was fouled. With an opportunity to give WSU a three-point lead, Session missed both free throws and UM grabbed the rebound. On the other end of the floor, Johnson shot a contested jumper that hit nothing but net, putting UM up 66-65.
The Big Sky Conference Championship and a chance to dance were on the line for the Wildcats with only 10.4 seconds left to score. Rahe took one time-out and then another, as WSU was unable to inbound the ball. When the ball was finally inbounded, Lillard managed to get to half-court but lost the ball, and a  jump ball was called with the possession arrow pointing in favor of the Grizzlies.
“When I got the ball, both Johnson and Cherry both tried to get the ball as soon as I got it across half-court,” Lillard said. “Then when I tried to dribble it, I think I dribbled it off Cherry’s foot and I was trying to grab it and we got tied up.”
WSU was forced to foul as soon as UM got the ball inbounds. The Grizzlies missed their two free throws, but with only 2.1 seconds to score, the best shot WSU could get was a three-quarter court shot by forward Kyle Bullinger that didn’t make it near the backboard.
Lillard led the Wildcats with 16 points, but the Wildcats played a well-rounded offensive game, with all eight players who saw court time scoring. Six of those players scored at least seven points.
It was the opposite for the Grizzlies. Johnson had eight first-half points but scored 34 of the team’s 46 points in the second half. Johnson’s 42 points is a Big Sky Conference Tournament record, as well as a Dee Events Center record. Forward Derek Selvig was the only other Grizzly to score in double figures.
“The way he changes pace,” Lillard said when asked why Johnson was such a tough matchup. “He can change pace and stop and pull up and hit a jumper. He can make shots contested. I think that’s the main thing with him. Even if you get a hand in his face he can still make the shot, though. A lot of people can probably stay with him, but the hardest part is blocking his shot because he’s going to make a contested shot.”
With the win, UM earned a spot in the NCAA Division I tournament. WSU, the regular season champion, will receive a berth in the NIT tournament.
“We’ll think about (the NIT tournament) down the road,” Rahe said. “It’ll take a while to get over this one, obviously. When you got the group of guys I’ve got and you’ve invested so much into something, it’s supposed to hurt. If it didn’t hurt then there’d be something wrong.”
After the first half, WSU had a comfortable 40-20 lead. The Wildcats began the half with an 8-0 run and UM never recovered. WSU outshot, out-rebounded and out-hustled the Grizzlies. The Wildcats had 19 points off of UM’s 14 turnovers, while only giving up five points on four turnovers.
Session again helped the team start off the game, scoring seven of WSU’s first 11 points. However, Session struggled from the free-throw line early, only making one of his first six.
“We were pretty excited (at halftime),” said senior Steve Panos. “We had a pretty good half. We were playing well, high energy, high intensity.”
The Wildcats will find out who and where they play on Sunday, March 14, and will play in the first round on Tuesday, March 16 or Wednesday, March 17.