The Bobcat Nation

Terrell Brown is keeping Montana State in this one. He's got 13 points and he's 3-of-3 from downtown. He's also playing tremendous defense on ISU sharp-shooter Chris Hansen. Hansen is averaging 26 points per game in his career agains the 'Cats and is 19-of-29 from downtown against MSU. He hasn't attempted a field goal. He's got two points on free throws. Brown is smothering him.

MSU is 9-of-27 from the field, 5-of-14 from downtown. I did an over/under 20 3-point attempts pole on Twitter before the game. Everyone that took the over looks really good right now. Flavien Davis has gotten both his shots blocked by Ayibakuro Preh, ISU's 6-10 Nigerian nightmare. He's got 3 blocks all told already.

Jeffery Solarin has 11 points, two more than his season averagem, to lead the Bengals. Andre Hatchett has 8. Paul Egwuonwu has only played five minutes so far.

Wow that was a terrible call there on that ISU basket...

MSU 66, ISU 60
Hansen held to four points.

This was an interesting game, to say the least. There was very little offensive production in the paint: Flavien Davis ended up with 7 and Paul Egwounou ended up with 4 in very limited playing time. Terrell Brown scored 13 to keep the Cats in the game in the first half. There were some great moves at the end by Antonio Biglow. Marcus Colbert also had some decent moments in the game. It was a very balanced effort. Not too many three pointers fell, but the Cats made shots and free throws at the end to ice the game. That was a big win tonight for the Cats. It seemed like a very important to win kind of game for the tournament. They'll have to have more of an inside presence to win against Weber on Saturday, but let's see what happens.

another win in February. i'll take these all month long.

Swore I wasn't going back, but then found myself back at the fieldhouse with a handful of fellow sleepy fans. It really is getting sad how empty the place is anymore.

I'm not sure if that win saves the season or prolongs the agony. For sure we needed the win to have a realistic shot at making the tourney. Terrell Brown, who's been super quiet this season, had an offensive breakout in the first half. His shot is ugly, but it was going in. But on defense was where he really shined. He primarily guarded Chris Hansen, who has torched us everytime out before tonight. But it wasn't only Brown guarding Hansen, all our guards and Flavian Davis were leaving their guy to hedge out on Hansen whenever he got near the ball. This led to some other more unlikely Bengals having wide open looks and big nights, but at least Hansen didn't get going.

ISU was coming off an emotional OT win against Weber on Monday night. They clearly didn't have their legs in the second half. That was a huge advantage for us. What I can't understand is with ISU having bigger, slower guards with tired legs, why we didn't press ever? And on offense we were willing to play into their hands by walking it up and running the shot clock on every possession. Finally Dison got in there and ran at them a little bit and got a big 1 on 4 hoop, then Colbert and lastly Biglow starting running at their tired guards and going at the hoop. Frankly, as tired as ISU looked we should have run them out of the gym. But whatever...a win is a win-and this was about as big as they come for this team.

Egwuonwu was in foul trouble all night. He can't seem to avoid the silly reach in fouls-maybe it's because he hasn't been playing basketball that long or something, but when you're carrying 3 fouls, get your hands up and don't try to dig it out from a guard driving in the lane.

I forgot to add that it was a strangely officiated game as well. Both teams could maul each other on the inside but every call on the perimeter was a touch foul. Both sides had plenty to complain about, so it was consistent that way. Of course, it's much easier to talk about officiating after a win.

It was sleepy in the fieldhouse tonight. I really felt it today, but those of us who still go had fun.

Stout defense lifts Montana State past Idaho State
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Does MSU play the high school Class B stall defense? I haven't been able to watch a game for a long time