Missoula, Montana - The Thunderbird men's basketball team headed out on the road Thursday night for a matchup with the Montana Grizzlies, and the T-Birds fell 86-53.

The loss moves the Thunderbirds to 4-18 overall and 2-10 in the Big Sky Conference. With the win, the league leading Montana Grizzlies improved to 10-2 in conference play and 15-8 overall.

The Grizzlies started the game on an 8-0 run, and SUU's first point came on a free throw by Race Parsons, but that didn't stop the momentum for the home team as they quickly built the lead to 17-5.

The Thunderbirds found more of a rhythm offensively as the game rolled along, but Montana didn't give up much and had a 20 point lead after the first 20 minutes of play.

The Grizzlies continued to dominate in the second half, as they built their lead to as many as 36 and held on to win by 33.

SUU head coach Nick Robinson said the team had a hard time dealing with the three-point shooting of the Grizzlies, and they were not able to respond.

“Montana shot the ball extremely well from behind the three-point line tonight and we did not,” he said.

The Thunderbirds were led in scoring by John Marshall, who finished the game with nine points and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the freethrow line. Will Joyce put in eight points for the Thunderbirds in just nine minutes, which is a career high at SUU for him. Paris Davis also dropped in eight for the Thunderbirds.

SUU's Casey Oliverson was strapped with foul trouble all night, and fouled out with just two points.

Trey Kennedy and Travon Langston, two of the team's top scorers, didn't play due to disciplinary measures.

Robinson said he was happy with the effort the team gave as a collective on Thursday, they just need to work on improving other aspects of the game on Saturday.

“Our effort was there all game, but we'll need to combine that with taking care of the ball on Saturday versus Montana State,” he said.

Martin Breunig continued his big season on Thursday night, scoring 20 points and pulling down seven rebounds. He finished 7-of-10 from the field.

Bobby Moorehead put in 13 points for the Grizzlies, and hit every shot he took including three from behind the three-point line. Jack Lopez also had the same result, scoring 11 points and finishing perfect from the field.

Montana shot 62 percent from the field Thursday, compared to SUU's 37 percent.

Next up for the Thunderbirds will be a matchup with the Montana State Bobcats on Saturday. The game will have an early start time, as tip off is scheduled for 2:05 p.m.

The game can be heard over the airwaves on KSUB 590 and a livestream will be available on WatchBigSky.com.