[ad_1]
Utah Tech’s Isaiah Bishop fires shot against Southern Utah in Trailblazers 81-71 loss to Thunderbirds in Cedar City Friday, February 17, 2023 | Photo by Emily Witt, Utah Tech Athletics, St. George News
Cedar City – Southern Utah University got revenge on Utah Tech with an 81-71 men’s basketball victory on Friday night.
The Trailblazers (11-16 overall, 3-11 in the Western Athletic Conference) hosted their rivals up north earlier this season, defeating the Thunderbirds 86-79 on Feb. 4 in St. George.
But Friday’s WAC scrimmage at America’s First Event Center was a different story.
According to SUU Athletics, the teams took a 7-5 lead in the first few minutes of play against Southern Utah (18-9, 10-4) and shot into the first media timeout at 15:59. Utah Tech’s Cameron Gooden put the hosts ahead 15-13 with 11:33 to go before Maizen Fawcett put the hosts ahead.
The Thunderbirds responded as Drake Allen and Harrison Butler hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Allen hit a layup to extend the lead to 23-13.
Utah Tech’s Jacob Nichols, who scored 22 points, made a three-pointer with 9:33 left in the first half to stop SU’s run, but the Thunderbirds held on for a 38-31 lead.
Utah Tech came out of the locker room on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 38-38 at the 18:40 mark.
Fawcett, who scored 20 points to become the SU’s No. 3 scorer with 1,446 points, capped the Blazers’ run with a 40-38 layup in the paint and put away a layup by Jason Spurgeon. Southern Utah leads 42-38.
The T-Birds hit two short shots to go up 46-38, Noah Gonsalves hit a pair of 3-pointers, the Blazers kept the game going in the next few minutes and Utah Tech’s leading scorer Isaiah Pope made a jumper to make it 48-46 at 24.
Nicholls and Tanner Christensen then took charge for the Blazers, controlled the inside and helped the visitors come back, capped by a Christensen dunk that put Utah Tech up 53-52 with 8:35 to play.
But the leader was short.
Butler, Allen and Tevian Jones helped SUU regain and build a lead that eventually went up 68-57, thanks to Butler’s trey with 5:28 left.
The margin stayed near double digits the rest of the way, with Utah Tech trailing Pope Charities 74-67 with 1:11 to play.
But Fawcett and Jones hit their final shots and Butler added a 3-pointer to keep the Blazers going until the final buzzer.
According to Utah Tech Athletics, the Trailblazers shot 42.4 percent (25-of-59) on the night, although they were held to just 8-of-26 (.308) from the perimeter. Utah Tech also posted a season-high 86.7 percent (13-of-15) shooting percentage at the foul line, turned the ball over just 12 times, the team’s second-lowest total in WAC play this season.
Jones led three Thunderbirds in double figures with 22 points. SUU went 26-of-63 (.413) from the floor, 11 made 3-pointers (11-25) and 18-of-20 (.900) at the line. The T-Birds outscored Utah Tech 44-28, including a 15-6 edge on the offensive glass, which led to 20 SUU second-chance points (20-6).
Utah Tech returns to the road on Thursday, February 23rd at 5:30pm MT against UT-Rio Grande Valley, followed by a 1pm matchup against UT-Arlington on Saturday, February 25th.
SUU will take on UT-Arlington on Thursday, February 23 at 6 pm MT before taking on Sam Houston in Huntsville, Texas on Saturday, February 25 at 3:30 pm MT.
Copyright Saint George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.
[ad_2]
Source link
