SLIDESHOW: Weber State vs. Montana NCAA college men's basketball
MISSOULA, Mont. -- It doesn't take a basketball guru to figure out the reason why Weber State lost on Friday night.
The aggressive team usually gets the calls and wins the game, and that's what happened as the Montana Grizzlies topped Weber State 75-61 to end the Wildcats' five-game winning streak.
"There was no question about it," said WSU coach Randy Rahe. "They attacked us from the get-go and we were back on our heels and we could never recover."
The Wildcats (14-8, 8-2 Big Sky Conference) will try to avoid getting swept on this road trip tonight with another game at Montana State. The Bobcats (12-10, 7-4 Big Sky) beat Idaho State 63-60 on Friday.
The last time WSU was swept during a road trip was in February of 2008 when the 'Cats lost at Eastern Washington and Portland State. WSU lost both games of this road trip the season before that with the first loss coming at Montana State.
Damian Lillard scored a game-high 24 points, but didn't get much scoring help from his teammates. Franklin Session and Lindsey Hughey each added 12. However, no other Wildcat score more than five points.
Session also had a game-high 10 rebounds to record his fourth double-double of the season.
WSU shot just 37.5 percent in the game, while the Griz shot 51.1 percent and outrebounded the Wildcats 38-29.
"They came out fired up and just outplayed us," Lillard said.
Anthony Johnson led Montana with 18 points, while Ryan Staudacher added 16 and Will Cherry had 14.
There was a time during Friday's loss where the Wildcats were the aggressive team, but it came too late. After Vassy Banny scored a layup and Montana (16-7, 7-4 Big Sky Conference) took a 60-43 lead, the Griz's biggest advantage of the game up to that point, the Wildcats went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 60-52 with 7:29.
"That's the game of basketball," Rahe said. We got aggressive and got a few stops."
Hughey started the run with a 3-pointer and Session scored the next four points.
"On the court it felt like we had ourselves back in the game and were going to get a chance to win," Lillard said. "We made our run and they withstood it and won the game."
But then Johnson made three straight trips to the free-throw line, making five of those six shots, and the Griz went on a 10-0 run to again to lead 70-52 with 4:36 left in the game.
Montana led the entire game, and started by scoring the game's first seven points before Rahe called a time out. Brian Qvale's layup just before the halftime buzzer equaled the Griz's biggest first-half lead as the Griz led 37-26 at intermission.
Montana built on that lead in the second half by repeatedly taking the ball to the basket as the Griz racked up points while the Wildcats accumulated fouls. WSU was whistled for eight fouls in the first 7:22. The Griz's first foul in the second half came on a double-foul with 12:10 left in the game.
"The aggressive team is going to get the calls," Rahe said. "They deserved to get to the (free-throw) line 28 times and we deserved to get there 10 times."
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