With just over six minutes remaining, No. 22 Oregon found itself in a fight with Montana. The Grizzlies, who entered the game with a record of 3-7, had just hit a 3-pointer and cut Oregon’s deficit to 67-61.
However, the Ducks responded with a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to put the game away and earn their seventh consecutive victory. Led by Chris Boucher’s 23 points and 19 rebounds, Oregon defeated Montana 81-67 and upped its record to 9-2, including a perfect 7-0 mark at home.
“The number of rebounds didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to win that game and do my job,” Boucher said. “Every game counts now an we just got to win every game. Unfortunately we got off to a slow start but we were able to fix things and get the win.”
Boucher was masterful for Oregon, amassing a career-high in rebounds and adding five blocks and two steals. He went 9-for-14 from the field, 5-for-8 from the free throw line and grabbed six offensive rebounds.
“Tonight Chris absolutely saved us,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “His 19 rebounds was the difference in the game.”
Dylan Ennis also added a career-high as he finished with 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including two big 3-pointers at the end of each half.
Montana hung around in the game by forcing 11 first-half turnovers and then grabbing eight offensive rebounds in the second half. Besides Boucher, Oregon struggled to grab rebounds against Montana. The rest of the Ducks were outrebounded 19-12 in the second half.
“I thought our defensive activity at times was pretty good but other times, we had some breakdowns,” Altman said. “The rebounding game was bad. They had 16 offensive rebounds but they didn’t get a lot of points off them.”
Oregon forced 13 Montana turnovers and turned that into 21 points, a big turning point in the game according to Altman.
The Ducks got lost on defense to start the second half. It led to open Montana shots as the Grizzlies cut the deficit to one, 46-45.
Oregon then rattled off a 9-0 run to take its largest lead of the game. Montana closed the gap to six points before Oregon’s final run sealed the victory.
The game began with an ugly start by both teams. Montana got on the board first with a layup two minutes into the game before the Ducks rattled off 10 in a row for the early lead.
It was short-lived however as the Grizzlies clawed their way back into thpe game, tying the it at 10 apiece. The Grizzlies continued to build on their momentum and eventually took a 21-14 lead on an Ahmaad Rorie jumper with 8:03 to play in the half.
“We started off fast with a 10-2 lead but we have to maintain that and we didn’t,” Payton Pritchard said. “It’s still early in the season and we’re still coming together. Sometimes you’re going to have those stretches but we are going to battle through them.”
 
Pritchard finished the game with 12 points while Jordan Bell added eight points and eight rebounds.
Follow Ryan Kostecka on Twitter @Ryan_Kostecka