BOZEMAN — There's no question about it: Saturday was Montana State's day.
After a morning parade brought out multitudes to celebrate MSU's recent national football championship — and after the women's basketball team put a whipping on their in-state counterpart — Bobcats men's basketball coach Matt Logie seemed to have a specific thought before his team rallied past the Grizzlies 76-67 at Worthington Arena.
"I didn't want to be that guy," Logie joked of keeping the Cats from becoming the lone blemish what had been a jubilee of MSU success. "It's your preparation and your readiness to compete that allows you to finish a day like today.
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"It was not lost on anybody what this day could mean for Bobcat Nation in terms of celebrating what has occurred and where we're at as a department. And so we're thrilled to get the victory tonight."
It came with effort.
Montana State shrugged off a 10-point first-half deficit Saturday, rallying to beat rival Montana in the season's first Brawl of the Wild matchup between the teams.
After a basket by Kadyn Betts at the 8:59 mark of the opening half, Montana led 23-13. But the Bobcats chipped away and took a 32-31 lead into halftime when Manhattan Christian alum Seth Amunrud got a friendly roll at the buzzer.
That advantage reached 10 points and eventually ballooned to 13 for MSU not five minutes into the second half as Davian Brown drilled a wide-open corner 3, giving the Bobcats a 49-36 lead.
Montana fought back to within one point, 61-60, on a layup by Money Williams — who'd battled foul trouble — but the Bobcats closed the final 4:25 on a 15-6 run.
Jeremiah Davis hit two key baskets in that stretch, and MSU hung tough on the defensive end as Montana repeatedly went to Williams, the Big Sky Conference's leading scorer.
With the win, the Bobcats improved to 10-8 overall and 4-1 in the Big Sky, and got back in the win column in the rivalry series with Montana after dropping four of the past five.
Montana slipped to 9-9 overall and 3-2 in the Big Sky.
"In a big rival game like this, (we) just wanted to get our momentum started, especially defensively," said MSU's Davis, who keyed Brown's big second-half shot by swiping the ball from Montana's Williams.
"We kind of didn't have that spark in the first half, but that's what I wanted to do, give us a little run in the second half and kick it out to (Brown). That 3 was a big shot."
Jed Miller led the Bobcats with a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. Brown finished with 24 points while Davis added 13. Patrick McMahon contributed 11 points.
Williams, who came in averaging a Big Sky-best 19.5 points per game, was held to 17 on this night, but he spent stretches on the bench with foul trouble, particularly in the second half.
Coach Travis DeCuire, though, decried the Grizzlies' propensity for turnovers and defensive lapses that he thought led to the outcome.
"We got off to a really good start, they made adjustments and then they took advantage of our breakdowns, which is what good basketball teams do," DeCuire said. "Bad offense turns to good offense for your opponent, and that just happened too many times tonight.
"But hats off to Montana State. Guys like Davian Brown show up and have an incredible game in a great environment. McMahon struggled offensively for stretches but he made buckets when they needed them down the stretch. And then Jed Miller just played like a warrior."
