GREELEY — Will Cherry scored a career-high 30 points as Montana rallied past mistake-plagued Northern Colorado 75-68 Thursday night
Derek Selvig and Kareem Jamar had 12 points each for Montana (18-6, 11-1), which has won seven straight and four in a row on the road. The Grizzlies overcame an eight-point deficit in the second half to complete a season sweep of the defending Big Sky champions.
The win helped the Grizzlies keep pace with Weber State for a share of the Big Sky lead. Weber State beat Northern Arizona 67-49.
Cherry had eight steals and moved into 10th place on the conference’s all-time list with 201 steals.
Mike Proctor led Northern Colorado (7-16, 4-8) with 18 points. Tate Unruh added 15 points for the Bears, who committed 27 turnovers that were turned into 36 points.
Montana missed four free throws early in the second half and trailed 47-39. But the Grizzlies tied the game at 48 on Jamar’s three-point play with 12:54 left.
Northern Colorado led 53-48 and held its last lead at 58-56 with 9:08 to play after Proctor’s three-point play. Cherry’s 3-pointer gave the Grizzlies the lead right back, and they oustcored Northern Colorado 16-10 the rest of the way.
Montana made its first five 3-point attempts, two by Cherry, and 8 of 9 shots overall to jump to a 25-13 lead. The Grizzlies missed their next 10 shots and Proctor’s free throws capped a 13-0 run as Northern Colorado pulled ahead 26-25.
The Bears led 34-30 after Emmanuel Addo made both free throws. Cherry scored four points and Selvig hit a 15-foot jump shot over the last 1:40 as Montana took a 36-35 lead into halftime.
