Box Score CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Thunderbird men's basketball team fell to the University of Montana on Saturday afternoon inside the America First Event Center, as the Grizzlies ran away with a 79-49 victory.
The loss moves the Thunderbirds to 6-7 on the season and 0-2 in the Big Sky Conference.
Dwayne Morgan got off to a hot start on Saturday, scoring six of Southern Utah's first eight points. Unfortunately for SUU, Montana got off to a hot start as well and held a 15-8 lead at the second media timeout.
After that point, the Thunderbirds went quite cold. The T-Birds didn't score a field goal for the next 12 minutes of play and Montana was able to build a sizeable lead.
With Montana leading by 25, the Thunderbirds went on a small run to cut the Griz lead to 19 at the break. Morgan had 12 of SUU's 20 points in the opening half.
Montana was able to maintain their lead in the second half, eventually knocking off SUU 79-49.
"We had some guys come into the game with a little adversity, and I don't think we overcame that particularly well with some illness and some guys that were out," SUU head coach Todd Simon said. "We were without Brandon (Better) today, and as soon as there was a lid on the rim for a little bit I think they let that affect them for far too long."
Morgan finished with a double-double, scoring 22 points and pulling in 11 rebounds.
James McGee was the second highest T-Bird points wise with eight.
Ahmaad Rorie was the leading scorer for Montana, finishing with 20 points.
Next up for the Thunderbirds will be a road trip to take on Idaho State and Weber State on January 4 and 6. This will be SUU's first Big Sky roadtrip of the season.
"The nice part is now we have Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get more organized with whoever we're going to have for the lineup," Simon said.
Follow the Thunderbirds all season @SUUBasketball on Twitter and Instagram and by liking the Southern Utah Basketball page on Facebook.
Read all about the Thunderbirds on www.suutbirds.com.
Season tickets for the 2017-18 SUU men's basketball campaign can be purchased at tbirdtickets.com or at the America First Event Center Ticket Office.
