MOSCOW, Idaho – The Idaho men's basketball team (10-21, 4-14 BSC) fell to Montana (16-13, 10-7 BSC), 68-53 in its final regular season game of the season on Monday night at the ICCU Arena.
Fifth-year guard
Divant'e Moffitt led the charge for the Vandal offense, scoring a game-high 21 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field. The scoring output was Moffitt's 14th game scoring at least 20 or more points this season.
Isaac Jones added his 11th double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds while freshman
Nigel Burris also added 13 points, seven rebounds and one block on the night.
It was another tough shooting performance for Idaho, as they shot 39 percent (19-of-49) from the field and 20 percent (2-10) from the field.
The Vandals got off to a hot start in the opening five minutes of action grabbing an early 11-3 advantage. Montana would go down and hit three of their next five shots from three to pull within one point (15-14). From there, Idaho held a tight one-possession lead for the next 11 minutes of action until the Grizzlies grabbed their first advantage since the 18:20 mark. UM would not relinquish it for the remainder of the half as they went into the locker room up 26-23.
Idaho led for over 18 minutes of action in the first half, shooting 45 percent from the field and outscoring the Griz 14-8 in the paint. Jones did most of the work for Idaho inside in the opening 20 minutes with 10 first-half points.
Montana used a 14-4 run to start the second half to increase its advantage to double digits (38-27) with 15:47 remaining. Idaho answered with a 7-0 run to bring it back within four points but it was Montana with a 9-2 run to get their lead back up to 11 points (47-36). The Vandals were unable to knock down timely shots to cut into the deficit as the Grizzlies went on to secure a 68-53 win.
Four Grizzlies scored in double figures, including a team-high 20 points from Brandon Whitney.
Up Next
The Vandals head to Boise for the Big Sky Conference Tournament as they get set to face nine-seed Northern Arizona on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
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