Jordan Gregory scored 21 points, including the game-winning layup with less than a second remaining, to give Montana a 61-59 win over Northern Arizona in the semifinals of the Big Sky Conference tournament on Friday night.
Gregory's basket with 0.4 seconds left came after Kris Yanku, who had 26 points for fourth-seeded Northern Arizona, tied the game with a pair of free throws with eight seconds left.
The game-winner also sparked a premature celebration by an ineligible member of Montana's team — the Big Sky confirmed him to be Jermaine Edmonds, ESPN reported — who ran out onto the court in his street clothes, then realized his mistake and hilariously dived back into the team's bench head first.
Even funnier was the reaction of Montana coach Travis DeCuire, who spanked his player as he slid into the bench.
Check it out in the picture and video below:
However, officials didn't call a technical foul on Montana's bench, leading to protests from NAU coach Jack Murphy, who got into a postgame confrontation with DeCuire and the teams traded shoves and nasty words.
That isn't a technical? .4 left and he is in the middle of the court. #NAU #BigSkyMBB pic.twitter.com/UC5N8P4aGv
— Cody Bashore (@AZDS_Bashore) March 14, 2015
"I'm not going to go into it," DeCuire told The Missoulian. "I did what I do after every game win or lose. I'm going to shake a man's hand, look him in the eye and tell him 'Good game.' The rest was entertaining."
Murphy apologized and credited DeCuire and Montana for a good game.
"From the get-go we've known that he has our backs," Gregory said of DeCuire. "Like he's told us many times before he wouldn't ask us to run through a wall for him, he'd ask us to run through a wall with him. I think that perfectly displays what our team's about."
The Grizzlies (20-11) face second-seeded and conference co-champion Eastern Washington (25-8) in Saturday's championship game.
Both teams missed numerous chances down the stretch but Aaseem Dixon hit a 3-pointer for the Lumberjacks (19-14) with 1:14 left to make it 56-55. But Gregory countered with a 3 for Montana at 43 seconds to make it a four-point game. After Yanku made two free throws with 30 seconds to go, both teams had a turnover and Montana missed two free throws before Yanku tied it.
After a timeout, Gregory brought the ball up the middle of the court and then cut down the right side of the lane, slicing through two defenders to lay the ball in.
"Our guys fought to the end up until the final buzzer," Murphy said. "For us to battle like that and tie the game the way we did at the end says something. This program is headed in the right direction, and we have to take it all and learn from it. You have to give credit to these players. They're a great group of guys and I'm lucky to have them."
