MISSOULA, Mont. – Four of five Montana starters scored in double-figures to help the Grizzlies defeat South Dakota 82-63 inside Dahlberg Arena Saturday night. The Coyotes end the Big-Sky Summit Challenge 0-2 while Montana finishes with two straight wins over Summit League teams.
 
Dischon Thomas recorded his third-straight double-double to lead Montana (10-5, 1-1 Big Sky) with 19 points and 11 boards. Josh Vazquez and Giordan Williams each added 17 points for the Grizzlies and Brandon Whitney had 16 points. The Coyotes held Montana's leading scorer Aanen Moody (16.1 ppg) to eight points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting from three.
 
South Dakota was led by senior forward Lahat Thioune with his fourth double-double in the last five games and eighth double-double of the season. Thioune had 12 points on 50 percent shooting from the floor and grabbed 11 rebounds. Redshirt freshman Steven Kramer was the only other Coyote to score in double-figures with a career-high 11 points. He knocked down all five attempts at the free throw line and went 3-of-7 from the field in just under 30 minutes of action.
 
The Coyotes started the game steady, winning the tip and scoring on their first possession. Montana took its first lead of the game at 9-7. Vazquez knocked down a triple at the 4:30 mark to give the Grizzlies their first double-digit lead of the game at 29-19. South Dakota went nearly seven minutes without a bucket in the first half but only trailed by nine after an Isaac Bruns three pointer ended the draught with just over a minute to play in the half. Vazquez hit his second three-point bucket in the final seconds of the half to give Montana a 36-24 lead heading into the halftime break.
 
The Grizzlies came out of the break looking to extend their lead and they did just that. Thomas came out and knocked down back-to-back three-point baskets to extend Montana's lead to 47-31 with just over 14 minutes to play. Thioune hit a few shots in the lane and the Coyotes had the lead down to 12 at the 13:25 mark, but the Grizzlies responded with another Vazquez triple to extend the lead back to 15 with 12:48 to play. South Dakota outscored Montana in the paint in the second half 28-18 but could not cut the lead below double-digits. The Grizzlies led by as many as 23 in the second half and shot 56.7 percent from the field.
 
Montana scored 17 points off of 17 South Dakota turnovers, but the Coyote bench had 27 points opposed to the Grizzlies' five bench points. The Coyotes outrebounded Montana 38-34 but struggled on offense, shooting just 37.5 percent from the field while the Grizzlies shot 52.5 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from three-point range.
 
South Dakota resumes Summit League play at Oral Roberts on Jan. 11. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside Mabee Center in Tulsa.