BOISE, Idaho — That Big Sky tournament magic ran out for Montana State.
The hot shooting that helped propel the Bobcats to 10 consecutive tourney wins and three straight league championships abandoned them against a high-caliber Northern Colorado team and they couldn’t recover in a 72-45 semifinal loss Tuesday at Idaho Central Arena.
Montana State missed its first eight shots and didn’t score until more than eight minutes had expired in the first half when Brian Goracke hit a 3-pointer. The Bobcats found themselves behind 15-0 at the 12:21 mark and the hole was too great to crawl all the way out.
The loss denied No. 5 seed MSU (15-18) a berth in the title game for the fifth straight season and halted its chance at a fourth straight NCAA tournament berth, which no team in Big Sky history has done.
Top-seeded UNC (25-8) advanced to Wednesday night’s championship game. The Bears are trying for their first NCAA tournament bid since 2011.
"Trying to do something as historic as going to four straight NCAA tournaments, especially in the midst of a coaching transition, requires a lot of people to embrace a lot of change," said second-year MSU coach Matt Logie. "Our leaders in our program, our seniors, embraced that change and embraced those expectations and hung together through the peaks and valleys of this journey.
"Obviously it didn't end today the way we had hoped. We couldn't get the lid off the basket, even when we got good shots."
It was MSU's first Big Sky tournament loss since the 2021 championship game.
On Monday, the Bobcats shot at a 63.5% clip in an 80-60 quarterfinal win over Idaho State, which was a continuation of a multi-year postseason trend. But it swung the other way on this night.
MSU shot just 15% in the first half, making 4 of 26 shots and 1 for 12 from 3.
Things didn’t improve much in the second half, and the low point came with 11:21 remaining when Logie was called for his second technical foul and was ejected from the game.
Logie incurred his first technical foul at the 12:08 mark after Chika Nduka missed a shot in the lane through contact. He was assessed his second as he continued to rebuke the officials during a timeout.
When asked about his dismissal afterward, Logie said, "I'm not going to comment on that. I don't think that's worth getting into. The credit goes to Northern Colorado tonight."
MSU ended the game with a .236 shooting percentage (13 of 55) and made just of 4 of 24 3-point attempts. As a result, the Bobcats were also outrebounded by a 44 to 23 margin.
Bryce Zephir led MSU with 11 points. Tyler Patterson, Jabe Mullins and Patrick McMahon shot a combined 0 for 18 from the field.
Jaron Rillie led four Northern Colorado players in double figures with 13 points.
It was the final game for MSU seniors like Patterson and Sam Lecholat, who stuck with the program through the coaching change that Logie mentioned.
"I've been with Sam and Tyler now for three years, and those guys are legends," junior guard Jed Miller said. "I try and tell guys that we have to replicate what guys who came before us did, and Sam and Tyler are perfect examples.
"Going forward, we've just got to look back at previous years and try to replicate what we can."
