Northern Arizona (-1.5) vs Montana - 4:00pm Pacific - Game #725-726
NAU won the Big Sky regular season championship last year before losing in the conference final to Montana. They have four starters back from that team and while they disappointed for much of the season they appear to be peaking at the right time. No Big Sky team has played better down the stretch. NAU has won seven of their last eight games with only loss coming on the road at #1 seed Weber State. A key to their late season resurgence has been the return Junior F/C Kyle Landry from a foot injury that caused him to miss basically the entire first half of the conference schedule. Landry is fourth on the team in scoring, second in rebounding, and an important defensive presence. He delivered in a big way in recent key road sweep of Montana and Montana State averaging 18 points and 12 rebounds in the two wins. Montana shot 60% and still only won by 3 at NAU in late January as Landry only played 15 minutes in his first game back from injury, but NAU was clearly the better team in most recent matchup at Montana less than two weeks ago.

Montana is very lucky to even be here as they had to rally from 13 down in the second half to beat Idaho State in OT Saturday night. Idaho State was playing their fifth game in ten days and just wore down late. Montana is is 3-3 in their last six games, with one win coming vs last place Northern Colorado, and the other two coming in OT vs Idaho State. The Griz have struggled all season adjusting to a new head coach and finding consistent backcourt play. Second leading scorer and rebounder Jordan Hasquet left Saturday's game with 7:49 to play due to illness and may again be at less than 100% tonight. Montana has made it to the NCAA tournament two straight years but this is not the same caliber team and someone else will represent the Big Sky this year. Give the points.

RAS Official Play: Northern Arizona -1.5 1 UNIT | WIN 78-71


Return to Record Page