MISSOULA — It's officially less than three weeks until Starch Madness in Boise, Idaho, and Saturday's Brawl of the Wild matchup between Montana State and Montana had huge implications in the standings for all four programs.
The doubleheader began with the women’s matchup, with Montana State setting the tone with a big lead early on the way to a 72-55 victory.
Montana State's Tricia Binford said whether you get a great start or not, as a coach you want your team to play a complete game for four quarters. This was especially important in Saturday's game.
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"For us, we were just making sure we were rotating, keeping some fresh legs. We were able to get Brooke (Fatupaito) some early minutes back (in) her first game back," Binford said. "So that gave us another experienced kid into the rotation, I think that really helped."
With the win, the Bobcats remain in second in the Big Sky women's basketball standings behind Idaho.
Montana State’s men’s program had a back and forth game before pulling away in the final few minutes for an 82-71 win.
Senior guard Jed Miller knew the impact the crowd would have on the game, and what the Bobcats had to do to control the tempo.
"We knew it was going to be a hostile environment, like every rivalry game is," Miller said. "So we had to calm down a little bit after the beginning."
Miller gave credit to Montana for its hot start.
"They came out the gates firing and shot the ball really well," Miller said. "We had to just settle in and do what we do best."
Montana State now maintains sole possession of the second spot in the Big Sky men's basketball standings behind Portland State.
Montana’s men’s program fell to third place with the loss, but Griz coach Travis DeCuire believes the team had takeaways from this game that can be implemented moving forward.
"It's a game of adjustments, but you're always going to take positives from games and believe that if you do the things that you see worked consistently within that game you win," DeCuire said. "That's how we'll feel the next time going in, I'll find those things, and then we'll try to execute them for 40 minutes."
As for the Lady Griz, they dropped to eighth in the standings, coach Nate Harris is still focused on continuing to play their way into a better position as the conference tournament approaches.
"It's all really important," Harris said. "Every game is the biggest game of the year, but there is a week in March where you have to be really good. And so we've just got to keep building towards that."
Harris thought his team had positives to draw on from the final two and a half quarters of the game.
"We (had) some really positive things that we can lean on and really get better at them," Harris said. "Where do we go (from here)? We go to practice on Monday, to try and get better, and then turn around and play five more conference games, and try to win every single one of them, so that we can put ourselves in the best situation possible to win games in Boise."
