Cats @ Sac State Thursday 8pm (Live feed online)

[Hawks86]

3-0

[bpcats]

It is sad that our football game against Sac State had more points scored.

[GOKATS]

Nice road win!!

[grizzh8r]

It is sad that our football game against Sac State had more points scored.

MSU won both, so WHO CARES???

[BelgradeBobcat]

...and we win 61-59. I never doubted

Howard, whom I was very critical, hit a baseline jumper and a huge three and then got the rebound on their last shot. Eric Rush hit the go ahead shot with 12 seconds left to put us up 1. Howard made 1 of 2 after his big rebound to put us up 2. Sac heaved a desparation full court shot...when they still had 3 seconds. Not hard to see why they always lose these close ones.

Good win-ugly, but good.

[Weltercat]

Awesome! tied for first place in conference and 3-0.

[Hawks86]

Good to see bp is back to his old ways.


I'll take an ugly road win any day.

[CATS2000]

Great Win CATS!!!!!

[4everacatfan]

...and we win 61-59. I never doubted

Howard, whom I was very critical, hit a baseline jumper and a huge three and then got the rebound on their last shot. Eric Rush hit the go ahead shot with 12 seconds left to put us up 1. Howard made 1 of 2 after his big rebound to put us up 2. Sac heaved a desparation full court shot...when they still had 3 seconds. Not hard to see why they always lose these close ones.

Good win-ugly, but good.

OMG! was that a half way complement! Im glad Huse has enough confidence in him to have him in. Good thing he is our coach and not you. No one shot very well tonight. But a win is a win. When a team shoots 50% from the floor there are not a lot of rebounds to get.

Do you think Huse maybe wanted him to miss that last ft. so the clock would start right away and they could not set something up off the inbounds?

Good job coaches and all players it was a team win.

[BelgradeBobcat]

...and we win 61-59. I never doubted

Howard, whom I was very critical, hit a baseline jumper and a huge three and then got the rebound on their last shot. Eric Rush hit the go ahead shot with 12 seconds left to put us up 1. Howard made 1 of 2 after his big rebound to put us up 2. Sac heaved a desparation full court shot...when they still had 3 seconds. Not hard to see why they always lose these close ones.

Good win-ugly, but good.

OMG! was that a half way complement! Im glad Huse has enough confidence in him to have him in. Good thing he is our coach and not you. No one shot very well tonight. But a win is a win. When a team shoots 50% from the floor there are not a lot of rebounds to get.

Do you think Huse maybe wanted him to miss that last ft. so the clock would start right away and they could not set something up off the inbounds?

Good job coaches and all players it was a team win.

No way. You try to make the freethrow to go up by 3-always. You never know when one of those full court heaves goes in so you want overtime as the worst case senario. Howard is a terrible freethrow shooter-that's a statistical fact-especially for a player of his calibre. He missed it-it didn't hurt us-yay!

I would have had Howard in-I never said take him out. But I'm sure he drives Huse crazier than any of us fans. You love him on your team, he's always giving 100%, and you know he's going to make a big play...but in the meantime he'll drive you crazy. Or am I the only one who cringes when yet another airball three goes flying?

[Potomac Griz]

Way to pull out a close one on the road! Any road wins in the Big Sky are probably going to be pretty big this year..even against Sac State. When I saw you guys were down by with with 20some seconds left I figured I'd refresh it a minute later and see you had lost. Wish I had watched the end of it..but I wasn't in the mood to watch load up BigSky TV again after watching the debacle @UNC tonight

Good luck against UNC on the 8th. UNC looks pretty solid. I really thought they wouldn't be too good this year after losing Figures and Bonner....seems I might've been wrong... Hopefully for your sake your offense won't struggle like the Griz O did today

[bpcats]

Best thing about Huse's team is that they know how to grind out wins. Kind of their trademark. I think one of their announcers said that Sac State had the youngest team in the conference. MSU wasn't too far behind. I think that this team can't afford to play stupid if it wants to make any type of push in the conference.

[TomCat88]

First, I thought the officials did an excellent job calling the game. I mean that was one of the best called games I've ever seen in the Big Sky. Looks like the BSC has made some good hires lately.

You have to like MSU's toughness in the last few games, but they can't afford to lapse in that area. They fought through some tough spots again last night. This isn't going to be a team that's going to dominate every phase of the game and cruise to wins. They'll have to draw on all the resources every night.

[wbtfg]

It is sad that our football game against Sac State had more points scored.

I guess it depends on how you look at things. I thought it was impressive that our defense held Sac State's bball team to less point than what their football team scored.

[kmax]

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An announced crowd of 569 at the Hornets Nest watched Montana State outscore Sac State 10-3 in the final 4:10. Still, the Hornets had a chance to win but once again didn't execute.

I think I've seen more people than that standing around watching a noon-ball pickup game.

[ilovethecats]

all in all i'm happy with the win. after all...i'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day. however, there are still some things that must improve because sac state is going to be one of the worst conference teams we'll face so it's not getting easier.

our rebounding needs to improve. i don't care if sac shot 90% from the field...there were still missd shots to be had, and more times than not sac got those misses. they didn't outrebound us by much, but the point is that sac doesn't out-rebound ANYBODY and they did us. i have a buddy in that area that follows them a little bit and he told me it's been something like 20 years since the hornets out rebounded their opponents for a season. and within the season it rarely happens. we already know rebounding is an issue for us, so if we can't out rebound the worst rebounding team in the league...what do you think we'll do aginst the best rebounding teams.

our free throw shooting is once again an absolute joke and it WILL cost us some wins before the season is over. we shot 57% last night! more dissapointing than that is the fact that we once again shot a good percentage in the first half but could barely draw iron in the 2nd. people fail to realize the importance of clutch free throw shooters but they will once we lose a game or two. i imagine if sac would have hit a three at the buzzer last night after bobby missed his second ft and we lost by one people would be as upset as myself and BB are. and to suggest that the last one was missed intentionally couldn't be farther from the truth. no player or coach in their right mind would choose running the clock over a three point lead. if you are up by 4 there....and in rare occasions 3....then you can miss intentionally. you don't miss intentionally when leading by 2 with almost 4 seconds to play.

and finally i would still like to see us play as a team more. there is no doubt that erik and bobby are our guys. i want the ball in their hands when the game is on the line and it was. that is great. however, i still feel like these 2 guys only trust eachother, and the rest of the team is just going through the motions. these 2 guys took 29 shots last night and 13 of them were from beyond the arc. the other 8 guys who logged minutes COMBINED for 27 attempts. this just makes us too one-dimensional and too easy to guard. we can get away with it against sac....we won't get away with it against anyone else.

[TomCat88]

Good analysis iltc.

I think the team would be more balanced if someone or someones come out hitting shots out of the gate. Vs. WSU it was 26-34 and NAU it was 21-32. Cody Anderson was very involved in the WSU game and there was a hot start for MSU in the NAU game. If MSU comes out cold, like it did last night, then the ball is going to end up in Howard/Rush's hands more due to a lack of mental toughness. You can't back away from open shots or being aggressive if you're Anderson, Singleton or Piepoli or a reserve. While I think it's more important to bear down on defense when you're cold and not over-focus on the offense, it's also important to relax enough on offense that you don't pass up open shots by the other three on the court.