GREELEY, Colo. — The Montana men's basketball team went cold Monday night in an 85-57 loss at Northern Colorado to wrap up the regular season.
The Grizzlies (16-15, 10-8 Big Sky) will next head to the Big Sky Conference tournament, but they didn't know their postseason seeding until later Monday night.
The tournament tips off Saturday in Boise, Idaho. Official tournament pairings will be released by the league on Tuesday.
Quinn Denker and Zach Bloch each scored 16 points to pace Northern Colorado. Denker also had seven rebounds while Ring Nyeri added 15 points and seven boards. The Bears (20-11, 10-8) shot 49.3% and hit 11 of 30 3-point attempts while outrebounding Montana 35-29.
Money Williams led the Grizzlies with 17 points and Kenyon Aguino added 10, but Montana shot just 38.3% from the floor (23 of 60) and 22.7% from 3-point range (5 of 22). Williams and Aguino led UM with six rebounds apiece.
The Griz led 7-3 after Brookyln Hicks hit a 3 less than three minutes into the game, but never regained the lead after Zach Block tied it with a layup less than two minutes later.
Montana turned the ball over 13 times and Northern Colorado capitalized by scoring 19 points off those giveaways. Block and Nyeri combined to make six of UNC's 10 steals.
