Sunday, February 28, 2016

Big Sky morning links -- Feb. 28 + a few highlights


SOUTHERN UTAH 69,, NORTHERN ARIZONA 59

From the Arizona Daily Sun ... Northern Arizona University men's basketball team drops home finale to Southern Utah

IDAHO 66, EASTERN WASHINGTON 62

From the Spokesman Review ... Chris Sarbaugh leads Idaho past EWU

Some strong words, which I love, from Idaho guard Victor Sanders in the Spokesman after the game: “We’re not satisfied. We’re not happy. We’re on a mission. We’re on a mission to get to the pinnacle of what we’re supposed to do. We want to win a Big Sky championship and we have to take it one game at a time and this is just a stepping stone to get there.”

NORTH DAKOTA 97, SACRAMENTO STATE 71

From the Grand Forks Herald ... MEN'S BASKETBALL: UND 97, Sacramento State 71 (another stellar night for Quinton Hooker)

Hooker is, without a doubt, your Big Sky Conference player of the week. Against Sacramento State, the junior played in an effortless fashion, scoring 34 points in 32 minutes while shooting 11 of 12 from the field and 5 of 5 from 3. That's one heck of a game, and it follows Thursday's effort when Hooker had 38 points against Portland State, an 80-77 UND win.

In the two games, Hooker averaged 36 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists on — get this — 81.2 percent shooting.

IDAHO STATE 76, MONTANA STATE 69

From the Idaho State Journal ... STOPPED COLD — Bengals halt 'Cats rally, win 76-69

From the Billings Gazette ... Bobcats falter down the stretch in loss at Idaho State

PORTLAND STATE 89, NORTHERN COLORADO 86

From the Greeley Tribune ... UNC men's hoops fall to Portland State University (check out Portland State's game-winning shot in the video below)

Vikings forward Cameron Forte missed eight free throws and had five turnovers, but the graduate senior led PSU with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting in 39 minutes. Northern Colorado head coach B.J. Hill had a great quote in the Greeley Tribune.

Hill said of Forte: “You don’t see too many guys in our conference who are that skilled. He demands a double team. ... We didn’t feel we could guard him one-on-one and we had to throw a lot of different things at him. He’s like a 6-foot-7 guard. He sees how you’ll rotate on him and how you’re (setting up) to stop him.”

WEBER STATE 60, MONTANA 54

From the Missoulian ... Weber drops Montana out of first place

The Missoulian's Kyle Sample touched on a bit of a controversy that happened during the game. Toward the end of the first half, the officials went to a video review and the broadcast mentioned that they thought the referees were looking for evidence of a player spitting.

Sample wrote in his story that it was UM junior guard Walter Wright who was accused of spitting "in the direction" of Weber State's bench. During the game the referees found nothing and the action moved on. After it was over, however, Wildcats guard Juwan Williams got into a slight scuffle with Wright during the postgame handshakes

I'll be curious to see if the Big Sky Conference goes back to video to see if they can find Wright, or another UM player, spitting, because if they do I have to assume there could be some sort of punishment handed down during the week.

Honestly, I hope nothing else comes out of the situation. More than anything, this incident is reflective of the Montana-Weber State rivalry — it's as heated and competitive as ever.

From the Standard-Examiner ... Weber State takes sole possession of first place with 60-54 win over Montana





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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 28, 2016 at 2:43 PM

    What's up with the UM-WSU game getting so competitive and heated? I'm pretty sure I've seen people on each of their message boards saying the regular season doesn't matter since the tournament includes all 12 teams at a neutral site. Don't the players understand this also? ;)

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  2. Kyle FrankoFebruary 28, 2016 at 7:29 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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