Thomas leads Griz into Big Sky title game

BOISE, Idaho — Dischon Thomas scored 21 points, Brandon Whitney added 17 points and four assists and Montana handled Idaho State 72-58 late Wednesday to make the Big Sky Conference men’s tournament championship.

The Grizzlies (23-10) will take on Montana State (16-17) at 9:30 p.m., at Idaho Central Arena for the title. That game, which will air on ESPN2, pits the intrastate rivals against each other for the championship for the first time since 1986. The Cats won that one, 82-77.

Thomas scored 13 first-half points while helping Montana to a 33-21 lead in Tuesday’s late semifinal.  The gap grew to 54-34 when Aanen Moody hit a pull-up jumper at 12:03 of the second half.

Idaho State (14-20) scored the game’s next 11 points, capped by Miguel Tomley’s 3-pointer, to close to 54-45 with 9:25 remaining. That’s as close as the Bengals got; Laolu Oke’s layup with 6:46 left broke the Griz scoring drought and sparked them to their fifth title game appearance in 10th-year coach Travis DeCuire’s tenure.

Tuesday also marked DeCuire’s 200th coaching win, all with the Grizzlies. DeCuire has his squad in the tournament final for the first time since 2018.

Thomas was 3 of 6 from 3-point range and Montana hit eight shots from the arc overall, including two each from Moody and Josh Vasquez. Moody had 12 points; Oke had 10 points and eight boards.

Tomley had a game-high 22 points for the Bengals, and Kiree Huie added 10.