CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Thunderbird men's basketball team suffered their first home loss of the 2019-20 campaign on Thursday evening, as the Montana Grizzlies emerged victorious in the America First Event Center 60-58. 

"We were just too inconsistent," SUU head coach Todd Simon said following the contest. "Montana is 2-0 and has won the league two years in a row, you don't get to waste possessions and have lapses, and that's what we did. When you're playing good teams, you don't get to do that."

The Thunderbirds are now 8-5 on the year, and 1-1 in Big Sky Conference play. 

Montana put themselves in control early, jumping out to an early 14-7. Their lead never got any higher than that in the opening half, but they held the lead through the opening 20 minutes. 

The Grizzlies held a 26-21 lead at the break. 

Montana took their largest lead of the game about a minute into the second half, as they went up 10. The T-Birds continued to push the lead down, and cut it down to two on a few different occasions. 

In the closing minute the T-Birds cut the lead down to one yet again on a John Knight III layup, and got a few opportunities, but were unable to score again and Montana left Cedar City with their third-straight Big Sky victory. 

"Our defense was off tonight," Knight III said. "We let them score nine in the first four minutes, and that was too quick. We didn't have enough urgency on defense of the first half and we didn't pick it up until the last nine minutes of the game, and we can't do that."

Maizen Fausett led the charge for the T-Birds, scoring 15 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. Six of those boards were offensive.  

Knight III finished with 13 points, while Harrison Butler added 12 points and 11 boards, giving the T-Birds two players with double-doubles on the evening. 

Southern Utah committed 15 turnovers on the night, and Montana capitalized with 16 points off those turnovers. 

As a team the T-Birds shot 39 percent for the contest, and hit just 23 percent of their three-point attempts.  

For the Griz, Jared Samuelson was the leading scorer with 21 points. Kendal Manuel finished with 17 while Sayeed Pridgett scored 16. 

Southern Utah's bench outscored Montana's 17-4. 

The T-Birds will be back home on Saturday afternoon, as they'll face off against the Montana State Bobcats at 2 p.m. MT. 

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Read all about the Thunderbirds on www.suutbirds.com.