Women's Basketball 1/31/2009 7:00:00 AM Southern Utah Athletics

Anne Westwood Higbee Records 1,000th Point as Thunderbirds Post 51-48 OT Victory

CEDAR CITY, Utah - Jan. 31 - Anne Westwood Higbee scored her 1,000th career point during the night and then swatted away a Western Illinois shot with two seconds remaining in overtime to cement a 51-48 SUU victory at home over the Westerwinds on Saturday night. The win improves the T-Birds to 8-13 on the year and 4-6 in The Summit League. Western Illinois dropped to 6-15 and 4-6 in conference with the loss.

Higbee became only the seventh Lady T-Bird to record more than 1,000 points in a career and could become only the third women's basketball player to record 1,000 points and 700 rebounds in her career with three boards against IUPUI on Monday night.

"Our girls played tough tonight," interim head coach Kit Janes said. "Our bigs hit some clutch free throws in overtime and Kaila (Goff) and Cassie (Platt) hit some big three's during the game to keep us close."

Southern Utah began the game ice cold, shooting 0-of-6 from the floor while committing three turnovers during the first six minutes of the game. The sluggish start allowed Western Illinois to build an early 7-0 lead over that span. However, SUU rallied to tie the game at 9-9 with 6:37 in the first half as the Westerwinds encountered a dry spell of their own.

Both teams then began to click down the stretch with WIU building a 16-11 lead until a 10-4 run over the final four minutes of the half gave the Thunderbirds a 21-20 half-time advantage.

In the second half, both teams continued to stay within striking distance as WIU built a lead of as much as five (28-23) before Southern Utah countered to tie the game at 30-30 with 8:38 to play. However, the Westerwinds recaptured the lead by the slimmest of margins until back-to-back free throws by Challis Pascucci gave the Thunderbirds a 41-40 lead.

Another lay-up by Pascucci gave the T-Birds a three-point lead (43-40) with 34 seconds to play, but a missed free throw on the back end by Kaila Goff made the Southern Utah advantage 44-42 with 24 seconds on the clock. WIU's Jordan O'Brien, who was perfect from the field (6-of-6) drained a shot with one second on the clock, sending the game in to overtime.

The extra stanza was the first for the Thunderbirds all year and despite shooting only 1-of-4 from the field during the final five minutes, SUU captured the victory on 5-of-6 free throws for the 51-48 victory. Pascucci was perfect from the line in overtime (4-of-4) with Caitlyn Sears scoring the tying bucket on an offensive rebound early in the period and then connecting on 1-of-2 from the line with two seconds left.

Higbee rounded out her career night with her second consecutive double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds while recording one assist, two blocks and three steals to fill out the box score. Pascucci joined her in double figures with 12 points and eight rebounds.

WIU's O'Brien led all scorers with 15, but was the only Westerwind in double figures.

Southern Utah will stay at home in its next game on Monday night when the Thunderbirds host the IUPUI Jaguars. That game is scheduled to tip-off at 7:00 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

#13 Kaila Goff: G; 5' 8"; Freshman

#24 Challis Pascucci: F; 6' 2"; Freshman

#32 Caitlyn Sears: G/F; 5' 10"; Freshman

#21 Anne Westwood Higbee: F/C; 6' 1"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#13 Kaila Goff
: 5' 8"; Freshman
: G

#24 Challis Pascucci
: 6' 2"; Freshman
: F

#32 Caitlyn Sears
: 5' 10"; Freshman
: G/F

#21 Anne Westwood Higbee
: 6' 1"; Junior
: F/C