New Mexico has been a part of Montana’s last two NCAA tournament appearances — and both have ended badly.
Two years ago, the Montana Grizzlies’ tourney run ended in the their first game, against the Lobos; this year it ended at New Mexico’s home court.
The No. 4 seed Wisconsin Badgers dominated the 13th seeded Grizzlies 73-49 in the second round of the NCAA tourney in the Pit behind 18 points from Ryan Evans and 17 points from Jordan Taylor.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “I thought we did some things really well. (There are a) couple areas we’re going to need to shore up, but I like the overall effort, and looking forward to playing again.”
The Badgers (27-8) did a number on Montana’s Will Cherry, the team’s leading scorer, holding him to just nine points off of 3-of-13 shooting.
“We just made sure that we tried to run him off the 3-point line and tried to get some help to him and squeeze the court,” Ryan said.
Wisconsin dominated the rebounding battle 37-21.
In the first half, it seemed both teams couldn’t miss. The Badgers shot 12-of-22 in the first period, including 6-of-10 from 3-point. Ryan Evans made several of those buckets early on hitting on his first four shots in the first five minutes of the game, giving Wisconsin an early 14-7 lead with 14:29 left.
Montana’s Art Steward kept up with Evans going 5-of-7 from the field for 12 first half points. He finished with a team-high 18.
The Badgers finished the half with a ten point lead, and didn’t look back.
Montana never cut it down to single-digits the rest of the second half as Wisconsin made basket after basket and finished the game on a 15-5 run.
“It’s been a while since we tasted defeat,” Montana head coach Wayne Tinkle said. “It was a heck of a run that these guys put together, and i’m awfully proud of my seniors that have meant so much to us. We were beaten by a better team today.”
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Montana (24-10) made 18-of-47 shots from the field for 382 percent. The Badgers made 23-of-48 for 47.9 percent.
This is the third consecutive season the Wisconsin Badgers have made the NCAA tournament as a No. 4 seed.
The Badgers play Vanderbilt in the third round on Saturday.
