Sweet repeat: Montana State Bobcats beat Northern Arizona for 2nd straight Big Sky title

BOISE, Idaho — The biggest threats in March are the hot teams that believe in themselves.

Northern Arizona — plagued all season by achingly close losses — played its best basketball of the season this week and surged to the Big Sky Conference men's championship game as the tournament’s ninth seed. The Lumberjacks were as hot and confident as anybody.

Second-seeded Montana State, the experienced defending champion, closed the book on that Cinderella story. As winners of 12 of their last 13 games entering the title game, the Bobcats were plenty hot themselves.

Montana State quelled the madness the Lumberjacks tried to impose on this month and claimed an 85-78 victory on Wednesday evening at Idaho Central Arena to earn its first back-to-back Big Sky titles and a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament (the Bobcats are the first repeat Big Sky tournament champion since Montana in 2018 and 2019).

“It’s a feeling you can’t explain, especially when you started from the bottom,” said MSU junior guard RaeQuan Battle, who was named Tournament MVP after averaging 21 points per game. “When I committed here, they hadn’t had a championship in 20-plus years, and now we just went back-to-back. This means more, more than anything I could ever believe in.”

Battle led all players with 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting on Wednesday, hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers and all six free throw attempts. Perhaps Battle’s most-impactful moment in a tournament full of them came when he hit a 3-pointer while being fouled by NAU’s Trent McLaughlin and then sinking a free throw to put MSU ahead by nine, at 74-65, with 4 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the game.

The Lumberjacks had drawn within five points, the closest they had been in the second half, following a three-point play from star guard Jalen Cone on the previous possession. After Battle’s response, MSU’s lead was at least seven points for the remainder of the game.

“I won it with my team,” Battle said of his Tournament MVP award. “I didn’t do this by myself. This is with the team. I’m just happy I was able to win another ring and do it with my best friend here, Jubrile, and with my favorite coach of all time, Coach Sprink. It just means more than words.”

Senior forward Jubrile Belo, after posting 14 points and four rebounds before fouling out, was named to the All-Tournament team with Battle. Junior guard Darius Brown II contributed 15 points, five rebounds and four assists, and senior forward Caleb Fuller had 12 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore forward Great Osobor chipped in nine points and seven boards.

“I’m so proud of these guys,” head coach Danny Sprinkle said. “They bought into each other. They took ownership of the team. Players win games in March. Players make the plays in March. And these guys have been tremendous, especially with having a bullseye on our back all year after winning it last year.”

The 68-team bracket for the upcoming NCAA Tournament will be revealed during a selection show at 4 p.m. Mountain time Sunday on CBS. The Bobcats will learn at that point their opponent and location of their first game. This will be the program’s fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Last season, MSU battled through a difficult Big Sky semifinal game against Weber State before beating Northern Colorado by 21 points in the final. The Bobcats defeated the Wildcats in the semifinals again this season, a 60-58 double overtime win on Tuesday.

While the semifinal game was dominated by defense, Wednesday’s final featured a greater display of offense. Seven Bobcats scored in the first half, led by Battle’s 16 points and Belo’s 10. The Bobcats (25-9) took a 42-35 halftime lead after shooting an even 50% (15 of 30) from the floor in the first 20 minutes. The Lumberjacks stayed close thanks to four 3-pointers (compared to MSU’s two) and Carson Towt’s inside presence resulting in 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting.

After starting the game on a 6-0 run, Montana State’s lead later reached nine points in the first half.

That lead finally found double digits in the second half after Belo and Osobor hit three free throws in the first three minutes. MSU’s edge hit 11 points after a Battle 3-pointer with 12:58 left.

The lead hovered at about that distance for several minutes before a 6-2 NAU run cut it to seven with 6:28 to play. It was later sliced to six on a 3-pointer by Oakland Fort. The Lumberjacks kept chipping away, getting within five after Cone’s three-point play. But they would get no closer.

For some of MSU’s players, the confetti celebration afterward felt familiar but no less gratifying.

“The second one feels even better,” Belo said.

Junior guard Tyler Patterson, who hit a 3-pointer and grabbed two rebounds, said “it feels 10 times sweeter.”

Fuller, Brown and Robert Ford III — the team’s three transfers who arrived in Bozeman with expectations of helping the repeat bid — experienced a conference championship trophy celebration for the first time.

“It’s an out-of-body experience,” said Ford, who played tough defense all tournament long and finished the title game with five points, two rebounds and two assists. “I’m glad I could do it with them.”

Added Brown: “It feels better than I could have imagined.”

Sophomore forward Sam Lecholat had two points off free throws to complete the team’s scoring.

“Right now in the moment, it’s just a blessing. We’re going to March Madness again,” Lecholat said. “We had a target on our back the whole year. Every time we played someone, we got their best shot. This year, it was honestly even more important than last year because we had to do our best night in and night out. Last night, it was our defense that carried us. Tonight, it was a whole team effort.”

MSU won the rebounding battle 30-27 and shot 31 of 37 from the foul line.

Towt finished with 16 points to lead NAU before fouling out. Xavier Fuller scored 15 points, and Cone and Fort each scored 14. McLaughlin had nine.

The Lumberjacks finished their season 12-23 overall, and they had a 5-13 Big Sky record during the regular season. They had trouble all year long winning close games, as NAU had 12 losses decided by five points or fewer. Five of those were by one point, including MSU’s 69-68 win on Feb. 2 in Bozeman.

“They’re a dangerous team. They easily could have been a top-four team in the league,” said Osobor, whose late bucket in that February game provided the final margin. “It’s amazing that our team was able to withstand the run they had. The offensive firepower they have, Fuller and Cone, their guys can get real hot. It just showed how discipline and sticking to your habits will work out.”

When the confetti had all settled, and the enormity of their accomplishment grew more clear, the Bobcats reflected on the journey that made them champions a second time.

“There’s times when we should have lost games, but we just pulled it out. We figured out ways to win,” Battle said. “Even last year, we figured out ways to win. That’s the culture that we have. And that’s one of the hardest things: maintaining that throughout the whole year.

“The best part is now. You stress and you work and you put your blood, sweat and tears every single day into this game. We do it for this. We do it for the net. We do it for the trophy. And we do it for each other.”