BOZEMAN — Montana State men's basketball rolled to a decisive 74-62 victory over Kansas City on Saturday night, picking up their fourth win in the last five games in front of a home crowd at Worthington Arena.
Montana State (5-5) trailed for only 102 seconds the entire night, controlling things defensively and knocking down timely shots on the way to a sweep of their two opponents in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.
Stifling defense has been a trademark of the recent run for the Bobcats, who are allowing just 63.4 points per game over their last five outings to go 4-1 in that stretch.
"I think you're seeing our length come to the forefront a little bit," head coach Matt Logie said of his team's defense. "We've got great length across the board and that allows us to challenge shots closer to the shot pocket. Those all have margins that we're trying to win. I don't think we've seen our best offensive performance yet — we've had a couple good games offensively but our defense is something that we can hang our hats on when shots aren't going down or when you get hit by a curveball by an opponent. It's been great to see our entire program latch onto that."
On Saturday, the Bobcats held a Kansas City (4-7) team that loves to shoot it from deep to just 6 of 27 (22.2%) on their attempts from beyond the arc, and just 21 of 58 (36.2%) from the floor overall.
"That was the key to the deal from the get-go," Logie said of his team's effort on the defensive perimeter. "Kansas City has a ton of shooters and they play with a ton of confidence and have really, really green lights on shot selection so you've got to be ready to defend that at any given time. When you hold them to 2 of 17 in the first half, it's hard to get in a rhythm. You don't see one go down, you don't really have any clean looks, and so to have them finish the game 6 of 27 was really strong."
Max Agbonkpolo led MSU with 17 points and nine rebounds, continuing what has been a lights-out stretch. Over his last four games, the graduate student is averaging 16.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest.
In the post, a motivated Brandon Walker finished with 16 points, five rebounds, and three assists. The highlight of the night came with the Cats leading by 11 and just over six minutes to go in the game.
With only five seconds on the shot clock, Walker took an entry pass from Patrick McMahon before dribbling behind his back and delivering a posterizing left-hand slam on the head of the Kansas City defender.
"Brandon played terrific. Obviously that's a move we work on all the time" Logie said with a smile of Walker's behind-the-back dribble drive. "Brandon was great. He was under the weather a little bit today but fought through that and gave us a really strong performance."
It was one of five dunks for Montana State on the night, who took advantage of transition opportunities and backdoor cuts to get open looks above the rim.
Brian Goracke tallied 15 points off the bench for Montana State, knocking down three triples.
Patrick McMahon and Tyler Patterson each added seven points.
Montana State turned it over only nine times and shot 11 of 27 (40.7%) from 3-point range to stamp an efficient offensive performance.
Montana State led 34-23 at the break and never let Kansas City get within seven points throughout the second half, stretching their lead to 19 at 70-51 with four minutes to go.
Up next, Montana State starts a five-game road stretch with a trip to California, taking on USC in Los Angeles on Sunday, Dec. 15.
The Trojans will be the third Big Ten opponent that the Bobcats face this season, after falling by a combined 15 points on the road in close losses at Wisconsin and Northwestern.
