FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Call the Montana Grizzlies the Fun Bunch.

The Griz romped to their sixth straight win Thursday night, a 78-53 decision over Northern Arizona in a Big Sky Conference men's basketball game that set the stage for an early season showdown Saturday night at Weber State.

The Griz are 4-0 in league, 11-5 overall; Weber State is 5-0, 13-3, after a 63-49 win over Montana State on Thursday night in Ogden, Utah. The frontrunners square off at 7:05 p.m. in the Dee Events Center.

Montana dominated the struggling Jacks (1-4, 5-12) in about every way imaginable. The Griz made 13 of their first 19 shots on the way to a 39-23 halftime lead that made the second half all but academic. They held the usually good-shooting Jacks to 31 percent from the field for the game and forced 17 turnovers.

"When you're getting quality road wins like that - especially in conference where they're hard to come by - it's fun," said Griz junior point guard Will Cherry. "The starters can sit on the bench and rest up because we have a big one against Weber State."

Cherry had 12 points and three more steals, the second of which he punctuated with a breakaway slam. Kareem Jamar led the Griz with 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists and Mathias Ward scored 10 to finish in double digits for the third straight game.

But as much fun as the Griz had on the offensive end, it was set up with their defense. NAU's leading returning scorer, junior guard Gabe Rogers, was just 4 for 16 from the field and finished with 13 points. James Douglas added 12, but neither of the sharpshooters got free for a 3-pointer in the decisive first half.

"We really bought in on defense," Jamar said. "We did a good job on their top scorers. Defense always wins. Guard the arc, guard the arc; that was the main thing and that's what we did."

The Griz made eight of their first 10 shots to bolt to an 18-6 lead. Art Steward had three of the buckets from point-blank range, Ward had two right at the rim and Jamar drove to the hoop for another. When NAU switched to a zone defense, Jamar and Cherry nailed 3-pointers over the top.

"Offensively, our guys were really on page as far as attacking in the paint," Montana coach Wayne Tinkle said. "We got it into Art, to Kareem, our bigs. We made them go zone and we hit some timely threes. Defensively, we really guarded the arc, which we knew was going to be a big thing. Those things combined allowed us to get that lead."

The Lumberjacks cut the gap to 12 twice early in the second half, the last time on a pair of free throws from Durrell Norman that made it 43-31 with 17:50 to play. But the Griz responded with a 19-foot jumper by Ward, a drive by Jamar and Cherry's second trey to make it 50-31 with 16:04 to play. Montana's lead was never less than 17 the rest of the way.

That allowed Tinkle to rest his starters and get extended playing time for reserves like Mike Weisner, Kevin Henderson and Eric Hutchison. Weisner scored a career-best nine points and 11 different Griz broke into the scoring column, much to the delight of the starters who were cheering from the bench.

"It was out of character for me to make wholesale changes that early," said Tinkle, whose bench players outscored the Jacks 27-11. "I've seen too many games that can change on a dime, but I credit those guys for not letting that happen. There were some mistakes, but heck, they haven't played in a long time. It's neat that our starters put us in that position to allow us to get some guys playing time and it was neat that those guys did well with what they got."

And the starters seemed to enjoy the reserves' success as much as their own.

"They enjoy being around each other, they enjoy competing in practice and they're carrying it over to the competitions," Tinkle said. "The nice thing is they hold each other accountable. They won't let anyone take a day off. So far that's really worked for us."

NAU interim coach Dave Brown was impressed with the Griz, who have won their last two games by a combined total of 48 points, both on the road.

"They bumped us around - they're a good team," Brown said. "They didn't do anything that we weren't expecting, but they did it with a physical strength and maturity. Our team is rather young and we get bumped around out there on the court and sometimes we don't respond to that very well.

"They're a very good team, guys, a very good team. I don't think that anybody will take them out other than possibly Weber, to be very candid with you."

And that will be settled Saturday night.

NOTES: The win was Montana's most lopsided in Flagstaff since a 77-46 decision in the 1995-96 season. ... NAU was just 3 of 12 from 3-point range; the Griz were 6 of 15. ... The Griz had 19 assists on their 33 field goals. Derek Selvig led the team with four. ... Montana owned a 40-18 advantage in points in the paint and a 28-13 edge in points off turnovers. The Griz also outscored NAU 10-0 on fastbreaks.

Sports editor Bob Meseroll can be reached at 523-5265 or at sportsdesk@missoulian.com.

MONTANA (78)
	Mins	FG-A	FT-A	Reb	PF	A	Pts
f-Steward	15	4-4	0-0	1	4	1	8
f-Selvig	25	2-4	1-2	4	3	4	6
c-Ward	24	5-10	0-0	2	3	1	10
g-Cherry	31	5-10	0-0	3	3	3	12
g-Jamar	30	6-8	2-2	7	0	3	15
Henderson	13	1-3	0-0	2	1	1	3
Gregory	7	1-2	0-0	2	1	3	2
Wood	8	0-1	0-0	2	0	3	0
DeShields	4	2-2	0-0	1	1	0	4
Stockton	15	1-2	1-1	2	1	0	3
Weisner	16	3-5	2-3	3	1	0	9
Hutchison	12	3-5	0-3	6	2	0	6
Totals	200	33-56	6-11	35	20	19	78
NORTHERN ARIZONA (53)
	Mins	FG-A	FT-A	Reb	PF	A	Pts
f-Norman	28	1-6	5-6	7	2	1	7
f-Ekanem	25	4-7	0-0	6	3	0	8
g-Douglas	31	4-9	3-4	4	2	3	12
g-Rogers	35	4-16	3-4	2	1	1	13
g-Saldivar	21	1-3	0-0	2	0	3	2
Dunn	23	1-4	2-5	3	2	1	4
Cheek	10	0-5	0-0	0	3	0	0
Bewernick	8	0-2	0-0	3	1	1	0
Gruber	1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0
Jacobsen	5	2-3	2-2	4	0	1	6
Olayinka	13	0-0	1-2	2	1	0	1
Totals	200	24-53	10-14	33	15	17	65
Halftime score: Montana 39, Northern Arizona 23.
3-point goals: UM 6-15 (Cherry 2-4), Selvig 1-2, Jamar 1-2, Henderson 1-3, Weisner 1-2, Gregory 0-1, Wood 0-1), NAU 3-12 (Rogers 2-5, Douglas 1-2, Saldivar 0-1, Dunn 0-1, Cheek 0-3).
Turnovers: UM 15 (Cherry 3), NAU 17 (Rogers 5).
Blocked shots: UM 2 (Selvig, Hutchison), NAU 1 (Olayinka).
Steals: UM 5 (Cherry 3), NAU 9 (Rogers 3).
Officials: Eric Curry, Robert Holloway,Dennis Flannery.
Attendance: 561.