MISSOULA — Kai Johnson had never played in a Brawl of the Wild men's basketball game before Saturday.
But the Western Washington transfer acclimated himself well, scoring 25 points in helping Montana to a 77-70 win over rival Montana State inside Dahlberg Arena on Saturday.
Johnson, who drew the start in place of Money Williams, scored 14 of his points in the first half. Ten of those came in the final 8:40, as the Grizzlies turned a 21-20 deficit into a 42-30 halftime advantage. Brandon Whitney and Te'Jon Sawyer each added four points in the run, Austin Patterson threw down a thunderous fast-break dunk, and Malik Moore scored the final bucket of the first half.
"I think just playing at a good pace, not rushing anything, not getting too antsy coming off the ball screens and letting my roller roll and making the right reads," Johnson said of what was effective in the first half. "And then tonight the read was shooting the ball, because (the Bobcats) were dropping. That's just what it was tonight."
The hot shooting continued for Johnson out of halftime, as well. Following a Moore 3-pointer, Johnson converted an and-one bucket that pushed Montana's lead to 48-31 less than two minutes into the second half. But, as has been the case multiple times this season, the Griz let their opponent rally.
Montana State cut the deficit to single digits — 50-41 — at the 14:56 mark following five straight points from Patrick McMahon. The Griz answered with a 6-0 run by Joe Pridgen, and they kept the lead in double digits for the next five minutes.
But the Bobcats had one more run in them. A 7-0 spurt, again capped by McMahon, brought Montana State within 69-64 with 3:56 to play, and the Bobcats would get to 73-70 with 21 seconds remaining.
But Moore and Williams iced the game from the free throw line, giving Montana its second consecutive win. The Grizzlies are now 13-8 on the season and 6-2 in the Big Sky Conference, just a half-game behind Northern Colorado for the top spot in the standings.
"It was a fun win, the environment was great," said Montana coach Travis DeCuire, who improved to 15-5 against MSU. "We did a phenomenal job of executing, as well as we have all year. And then down the stretch, we just had grit in the second half to hold them off."
Johnson scored his 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting, as Montana shot 51.7% as a team. Pridgen (14 points) and Moore (13) also finished in double figures for the Grizzlies.
"It was amazing," Johnson said of the atmosphere at Dahlberg Arena. "I've been looking forward to this game since I committed here, to be honest. It definitely lived up to it. It was amazing to play in front of the Missoula community and have that gym packed out."
"It felt great," he added. "Sometimes it just falls your way. Tonight it was me, but if we keep playing together like that, it could be anyone on any given night, for sure."
McMahon led Montana State with 18 points, going a perfect 6 for 6 at the free throw line. Montana State was 18 of 20 from the stripe for the game but had 13 fewer field goal attempts than Montana, which had only five turnovers compared to the Bobcats' 13.
It was Montana State's ninth loss this season by single digits, including all five of their losses in Big Sky Conference play.
"Our belief's at a really high level," Montana State coach Matt Logie said. "They've stayed together, they've been very coachable in terms of trying to learn where we need to improve. ... We know we're capable of playing winning basketball. It just hasn't shown up every single time we've wanted it to yet. Hopefully we'll be peaking at the right time, get back home this next week and try to build some momentum."
The Bobcats (8-13 overall, 3-5 Big Sky) are back home against Sacramento State on Jan. 30, while the Grizzlies continue their home stand against Portland State the same night.