Hollister native enjoys second-half action as Montana upsets
Nevada 87-79 in NCAA tourney
Kyle Sharp and the University of Montana Grizzlies knew they belonged. Now, they have proven it to the rest of the country.
As the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament began in earnest yesterday, Montana scored the upset of the day, downing fifth-seed Nevada 87-79 in the Minneapolis Regional. The 12th-seed Grizzlies led from wire-to-wire, notching the school’s first win in March Madness since 1975.
Sharp, a Hollister native and former star at San Benito High, said playing in the tournament was the experience of a lifetime.
“I was just really excited about everything that was happening,” said Sharp by telephone from Salt Lake City, Utah. “Throughout the game, the excitement just built up.”
And Sharp didn’t just have an up-close view from the bench. With Montana forward Jordan Hasquet landing in foul trouble midway through the second half, Grizzlies head coach Larry Krystowiak called a timeout and barked, “‘Sharp, get in there.'”
As the timeout ended, Sharp’s coach approached him and said, “‘Kyle, I just want you to get in there and rebound and play defense.'”
Taking the floor, Sharp immediately grabbed a defensive rebound and took off down the court. Moving without the ball, Sharp cut hard to the basket, took a pass from Montana center Andrew Strait and laid the ball in for a lay-up.
“I just heard the crowd go crazy because we had a lot of Montana fans at the game,” related Sharp.
At the other end of the floor, the Montana freshman found himself guarding Nevada’s star forward, 6-11 Nick Fazekas.
The 6-7 Sharp, who grabbed three rebounds, spoke of the challenge of matching up against the two-time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
“It was crazy. He blocked my shot once because his arms are so long,” said Sharp. “His height and length are really evident when you go for a rebound.”
Nevada has two 7-footers in addition to Fazekas, while the Big Sky champion Grizzlies had nobody taller than 6-9. But the decided height advantage wasn’t good for much more than an advantage in rebounding for the Wolf Pack. Montana made up for that with solid shooting, especially from the free-throw line in the second half.
The Wolf Pack said on Wednesday that they hadn’t had a chance to watch much film about Montana and knew little about the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies didn’t take it directly as a slight. They felt Nevada wasn’t alone in knowing little about Montana.
“I bet they’d go watch film more if they had to do it again,” said Virgil Matthews, who had 20 points and seven assists for Montana.
A year after challenging top-seed Washington before eventually falling in the first round, the Grizzlies (24-6) returned like NCAA Tournament veterans and never trailed against the Wolf Pack (27-6), who moved from the role of underdog to first-round favorite this season.
Strait, Montana’s second-tallest player at 6-foot-8, had 22 points. He said the Grizzlies, seeded 16th a year ago, were happy to be a No. 12.
“Obviously, the seeding is based on a lot of different things,” Strait said. “They were a great team, they played in a tough league, they’ve beaten a lot of good teams this year.”
Nevada had won 14 straight, winning the WAC regular season and conference tournament to make it to the NCAA regionals for the third straight year. The Wolf Pack advanced out of the first round each of the past two seasons, first as a 10th seed, then as a No. 9.
Montana did little to stop Fazekas and Marcelus Kemp – the Wolf Pack’s top-two scorers – but shut down everyone else. Fazekas had 24 points and 12 rebounds, and Kemp scored 34. The rest of the Pack scored a combined for 21 points.
A year ago, under first-year coach and former Montana star Krystowiak, the Grizzlies needed four minutes to score their first point against Washington and trailed by 19 in the first half.
This time around, the Grizzlies led 40-33 at halftime and never appeared intimidated while looking up at Nevada’s towering frontcourt.
“I said this year, the story line doesn’t need to be that we were up by seven at halftime and we let it slip away. The experience from last year helped us through this time,” said Krystowiak.
Even after scoring the upset, Sharp said he thought his team could have played even better.
“I don’t think we played our best game,” said the freshman forward, “but I think we played an awesome game.”
Montana shot 52 percent (29 of 56) and made 23 of 27 free throws – going 19-for-23 in the second half while holding off several Nevada comebacks.
After Nevada coach Mark Fox was called for a technical with 8:47 left, the Wolf Pack went on a 9-3 run and got within 63-60 on a three-point play by Mo Charlo with 6:13 remaining.
But Matthews answered that with a 3-pointer and added two free throws to start a 9-0 run for Montana. Kevin Criswell ended it with a 17-foot jumper to put the Grizzlies ahead 72-60.
“Those are heartbreakers,” Fazekas said. “They hit like three of four of them. You’re down three, then all of a sudden you’re back down six.”
Both schools are about an 8-hour drive from Salt Lake City and the crowd was split about evenly. But Nevada didn’t give the Wolf Pack fans much to cheer about early, missing 13 of 17 shots to start the game.
“The madness of March. This year we’re on the wrong side of it,” Fox said.
But for Sharp and the Grizzlies, the Big Dance continues. Montana advanced to play No. 4 Boston College on Saturday, with a berth in the Sweet Sixteen on the line.
“We watched them play against Duke,” said Sharp of BC’s narrow loss to the Blue Devils in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Championship Game last Sunday. “We know they’re going to be tough. We have to come out and be more physical with them. We have to amp it up a little bit.
“They’re a tough team. They’re in a tough conference. We have to match that intensity that they have.”
But last night, Sharp was content to share his excitement over helping Montana advance to the next round.
“Usually, when I don’t play in the first half, I get the feeling I’m not going to play,” said Sharp, who finished with two points. “When [Krystowiak] told me, I was shocked. I really didn’t have time to get nervous.
“It was a rush.”
Doug Alden of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
