After impressive win over Alabama, Gonzaga returns home to face Montana Grizzlies

The No. 11 Zags have one more game before a brief holiday break

While most Gonzaga students have spent the past several days at home for their holiday break, the men’s basketball team remains in Spokane for one last game before getting a much-shorter time off. 

The Zags (9-3) will host Montana (6-5) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before getting a seven-day break, which ends on Dec. 28 when Gonzaga welcomes Eastern Oregon.

Ranked No. 11 in the country, the Zags are riding a four-game winning streak after Saturday’s victory over Alabama in Birmingham. 

Forward Drew Timme was the Zags' leading-scorer in all four games, averaging 26.5 points on 64.5% shooting from the field in that span.

Montana also enters Tuesday’s matchup coming off a string of consecutive wins — three to be exact — and like Gonzaga, much of their offensive production comes from a big man.

Junior forward Josh Bannan sits atop the Grizzlies in eight statistical categories, including his per-game averages in points (15.4), rebounds (9.1) and assists (3.2). He's also shooting a team-high 55% from 3-point range on 20 attempts.

The 6-foot-10 Melbourne, Australia native scored 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field in Montana’s most recent win over Prairie View A&M on Saturday. 

The Grizzlies’ starters registered all 81 points against the Panthers, with redshirt senior guard Aanen Moody being the team’s second-highest scorer with 21 points.

Montana shot 57.9% from the 3-point range while holding Prairie View A&M to 30.0% from the same distance. 

“We feel that if we’re physical and aggressive, we can keep our opponents’ field-goal percentage low, and the best way for us to shoot at a high percentage is to get the right shot for the right guy in the right places,” said Montana head coach Travis DeCuire on the Gonzaga Nation podcast. 

The last time the Zags and Grizzlies faced off was Dec. 8, 2015, when Gonzaga narrowly avoided an upset in a 61-58 win. 

“We were in a really good spot to close the game, but we made some mistakes… and let that one get away,” DeCuire said. “Hopefully we’ll find ourselves close down the stretch again.”

Although Montana has an 0-9 all-time record against Gonzaga, DeCuire doesn’t want his players to approach the matchup differently from any other game. 

“I try to treat every game the same,” DeCuire said. “You don't want your team to be too high or too low. You don’t want to approach a non-D-1 game with less energy than you would an opportunity to play a top-20 program — anxiety comes into play sometimes when you do that.” 

After playing Gonzaga, the Grizzlies will open conference play in the Big Sky against Eastern Washington on Dec. 29 and Idaho on Dec. 31. Both games are at home. 

The Zags’ first West Coast Conference opponent is Pepperdine on Dec. 31 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.