Coach Steve Smiley’s Northern Colorado Bears fell to Montana, 91-83, late Wednesday night in the Big Sky men’s basketball tournament championship in Boise, Idaho. Thanks to senior wing guard Kai Johnson (23 points), the Grizzlies (25-9) notched the league’s automatic, and likely only, bid to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

At the end of the day, when you score in the 80’s and you finish the game at like 60%, you probably shouldn’t lose,” coach Steve Smiley said. “I thought we played really hard. Give a lot of