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Senior post JaRon Brown scored a team-high
20 points along with six rebounds in leading Montana Western to victory
in a battle of the Bulldogs. Montana Western collected its fifth win in
its last six games to move to 25-9 on the year. Montana Western will
now face No. 7 seed Southern Nazarene University (Okla.) in the second
round of tournament play Friday at 9:45 p.m. CT.
Montana Western
grabbed the lead for good with 5:22 remaining and held on down the
stretch thanks in large part to its success at the free throw line.
Montana Western was a perfect 10-for-10 in the last 1:04 of play,
including eight straight over the final 38 seconds. Senior guard Layne
Glaus, who was 11-for-14 overall from the free throw line, hit all six
of his attempts in the last minute. As a team, Montana Western was
24-of-30 (80 percent) from the foul line.
"I am just happy,"
said Montana Western coach Steve Keller. "We waited here. We practiced
here for three days. We were ready to play. We came out ready to play.
That was a great basketball team we beat tonight."
Layne, who
had earlier missed two shots from the line with less than two minutes to
go, made four straight to help Montana Western cling to an 80-77 lead
with 12.3 seconds remaining. Union scored on a short jumper by senior
forward Keith Tolliver with 6.3 seconds on the clock to cut the deficit
to 80-79. Sophomore guard Brandon Brown was fouled on the inbounds, and
his two free throws extended the lead back to three points for Montana
Western. Union was able to get off one final shot, but senior forward
Greg Truvillion was off the mark with a 25-footer just before the final
buzzer sounded.
The Union/Montana Western contest was close
throughout. There were 14 lead changes in the game, including nine in
the second half. Montana Western took its largest lead at 17-12 after a
free throw by Brown with 11:36 to play in the first half. Union's
biggest lead came later in the half at 31-24 after a pair of free throws
by senior guard Tacuma Alexander with 3:21 remaining in the period.
Truvillion
posted game-high totals of 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead Union,
which ended its season with an overall record of 26-8. Truvillion was
14-of-16 from the free throw line in the effort. Alexander finished with
17 points, while junior guard Antoine Joseph and junior guard Stan
McNeil each registered 11 points.
NOTES:
Montana Western is making its first appearance in the tournament since
1989 - with the win they improve their record to 3-7 and 3-5 in
first-round games … Union was making its 13th overall appearance at the
tournament and drops to 7-13 all-time in tournament play … Union's Greg
Truvillion finished with a game-leading 25 points and 12 rebounds, which
gave him his 16th double-double of the season … Tacuma Alexander
finished with 17 points, which put him at 1,011 points for his career …
With under a minute to play in the game, Montana Western's Layne Glaus
was 6-for-6 from the free throw line … Montana Western's Terry Hauser,
the team's second-leading scorer, was held scoreless … For the second
consecutive year seven ranked teams fell in the opening round.
