OMAHA, Neb. — Montana State had four reach double figures and found a groove on both ends of the floor leading to a 76-65 road win over Omaha on Wednesday night at Baxter Arena.
Montana State (4-5) shot 54.0% from the floor and held Omaha (3-7) to a 44.4% clip on the night, showcasing their unselfishness on the offensive side with 17 assists to grab their first road win of the season.
"It was a great response to last Saturday," head coach Matt Logie said. "Our guys really honed in on the message and played with better pace. The ball has so much energy in it when you give it to one another and the pace of your cuts are hard. As a result, we have 17 assists and nine turnovers — I was really proud of our effort tonight. Double-digit road wins don't grow on trees. It's a good way to get our first road win of the year."
The Cats had four in double-figures, with Brandon Walker pacing the visitors with 17 points on an efficient 7 of 11 shooting performance from the floor, adding a team-high four assists.
Max Agbonkpolo scored 13 points and pulled down seven rebounds, while Patrick McMahon added 11 points, three rebounds, and two assists.
Playing perhaps the best game of his career, Jed Miller poured in ten points off the bench, the highest for the junior against a Division I opponent.
Across 17 minutes of action, Miller scored ten points with three assists and a steal, part of a balanced team effort from the Bobcats that saw the ball never stick in one spot too long.
In the first half, Montana State led 16-9 before Omaha raced back with a stretch in which the Mavericks scored 18 of the game's next 22 points, leading 27-20 to force a Montana State timeout with 6:02 remaining in the half.
"This is a team that took Minnesota down the wire, played really close with UNLV and Akron — those are all good programs," Logie said of Omaha. "Here at home they came out with great fight after kind of an embarrassing last game and we expected that. This is a good win."
Out of the timeout, Agbonkpolo nailed his first triple of the game to spark a Bobcat rally as MSU would go on to hold Omaha without a field goal for the duration of the first half, taking a 33-29 advantage into the break.
"This is a group that is coming together before our eyes," Logie said. "We've just got to stick to the process and be able to handle the ups and downs of the adversity that comes our way because when our attitude and our energy and our effort are right, we can be a really good team."
Montana State never trailed again, leading for the entirety of the second half and keeping Omaha at arm's length with a flurry of 3-pointers.
The Cats hit 4 of 9 attempts from deep in the second half and went 11 of 14 at the free throw line down the stretch to ice the game.
Jabe Mullins finished with nine points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals, while Brian Goracked added eight points off the bench with a pair of made 3-pointers.
Nine different Bobcats saw at least ten minutes of action on the court in the team win.
