GAME NOTES: The Montana Grizzlies begin their quest toward an unprecedented 10th Big Sky Conference title and enter the tournament as the top seed when they play a quarterfinal matchup against last year's champion, Weber State, at Dahlberg Arena.

This is the third time in the past four seasons that Montana has claimed the regular season championship and hosted the tournament. The Grizz closed their regular season by winning their final two and seven of their last eight games to go 14-4 in the conference and 23-8 overall.

Montana was actually the co-league champion along with Eastern Washington, which was also 14-4 in league play. But, because UM and EWU split their season series, the tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed and host status of the tournament was won by Montana by virtue of a better collective record against the two teams who tied for third.

Weber State, meanwhile, won this tournament last year and, like Montana, is a nine-time champion of this event. However, the Wildcats went just 8-10 in league play this year and ended the campaign under .500 at 13-16.

Still, Weber State qualified for the tourney for a conference-record 38th time.

Montana has won six of the last nine matchups with Weber State and this contest will mark the fifth time in the last six years the teams have met in the conference tournament.

The Grizzlies are paced by a pair of All-Big Sky Conference first-teamers Martin Breunig and Jordan Gregory, as well as honorable mention Mario Dunn.

Gregory is ranked fifth in the Big Sky in scoring at 16.8 points a game. He is also ranked third (tie) in the league in three-pointers made per game (2.7) and minutes played per game (35.7), 10th in free throw percentage (78.3%), and 11th in assists (3.3 apg). Bruenig, who was also the league's "Newcomer of the League", leads the Griz with 26 double-figure scoring games this season and is fourth in the conference in field goal percentage (60.2 percent), sixth in scoring (16.6 ppg), eighth (tie) in rebounding (6.9 rpg), and tied for ninth in blocks (0.9 pg). Breunig's field goal percentage ranks him 10th in the nation. Dunn's 1.8 steals per game are tied for second in the Big Sky, while he ranks seventh in assists (4.0 apg).

Montana leads the Big Sky with a scoring defense of 66.8 ppg and is third in turnover margin at +1.69. That's bad news for a Weber State team that is 11th in the conference in that category at -2.17. In fact, the Wildcats have committed 15 turnovers in each of the last three games and have had at least 14 turnovers 15 times this season. THey are averaging 13.4 turnovers per game this season.

Weber State's Joel Bolomboy led the Big Sky with 12 double-doubles, including double-doubles in nine of the team's 18 Big Sky games. He averaged 13.1 points per game this season and led the Big Sky and ranks 15th in the nation in rebounding at 10.2 per game. He scored in double figures 21 times in 29 games this season and reached double figures in rebounding 17 times.

Normally a conference powerhouse, Weber State is in the midst of a down year. The Wildcats though, know how to win these games and will give Montana all it can handle. However, the Grizz' defense and the fact that they are playing on their home court will be too much too handle.