MISSOULA — The Montana men’s basketball team jumped out to a 2-0 start in conference play with a road sweep of Eastern Washington and Idaho last weekend, and star guard Money Williams has been named the co-Big Sky Conference player of the week for his efforts in the two wins, the league announced Tuesday.
“It’s always fun when winning is rewarded,” head coach Travis DeCuire said. “He picked a good time to catch fire. There was a stretch in the first half at Eastern where he just generated a bunch of baskets whether he was scoring or assisting, and then he did the same thing closing the game against Idaho. He’s not afraid of big moments.”
Williams leads the Big Sky in scoring after the first week of league play, averaging 22.0 points per game in the two road victories. He also leads the conference in steals with seven total across the weekend, excelling on both ends of the floor in Montana’s best conference start in five years.
In Thursday’s win over Eastern Washington, Williams had 26 points and seven assists in an 11-point Griz victory. It was the second-most points in a game in Williams’ career, and his most assists in a game against a D-1 opponent. The win snapped a four-game losing streak to the Eagles.
On the defensive side, Williams set a new career high with four steals. It was part of an impressive overall night defensively for Montana. The Griz had 14 steals as a team, their most in seven years.
The sophomore took control late in a comeback win over Idaho on Saturday. Williams had 18 points, four rebounds and two assists, but did a lot of his damage in the closing minutes, scoring the final six points of the game for the Griz in a 73-71 win.
“His aggression, and the ability to make plays for himself and others, is what we’ve been missing in the last couple of years in those types of situations,” DeCuire said. “I believe that’s a big part of why we’ve been as good as we have up to this point. We have a couple of guys who can do those things, but it was a big week for Money.”
He had the play of the game to start his terrific closing sequence, stealing the ball from behind a Vandal defender and executing a perfect give-and-go up the sidelines with Joe Pridgen for a three-point play on the other end to give Montana a five-point lead late.
The guard followed up his four-steal performance against EWU with three more steals in the Idaho game, leading the conference through two games.
Williams leads Montana in scoring this season at 14.7 points per game. He’s second on the team with 43 assists and averages 3.2 rebounds per contest, starting all 15 for Montana.
Williams is the first Grizzly to earn player of the week honors during conference play since Sayeed Pridgett did so on Feb. 18, 2020. This is Williams’ second honor this year and the third for Montana. It’s the most by an individual player since Pridgett won twice in 2019-20, and most by the team since they had four that same season.
“I think the most important piece is this says that we are winning. When you win this in conference, it usually comes in a winning effort,” DeCuire said. “But it also means you have someone playing extremely well when it comes to numbers. When you have someone that’s exploding like he is offensively, you’ve got a chance every night.”
The Grizzlies are 9-6 overall and 2-0 in Big Sky Conference play. They are a perfect 7-0 at home, and will play their first league games in Dahlberg Arena this Thursday and Saturday.
Williams shared the award with Northern Colorado’s Langston Reynolds. The Bears guard averaged 20.5 points on 82.6% shooting in a 2-0 weekend for Northern Colorado. He also averaged 6.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Reynolds and the Bears will be in Missoula on Saturday for a massive early season matchup. The only 2-0 teams in the conference will tip at 4 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast on SWX and streamed on ESPN+.
