Southern Utah's men's basketball team plays its penultimate Summit League road game Saturday as the Thunderbirds visit South Dakota State. With the scheduled move to the Big Sky Conference next season, the team will play just one more Summit road game, at Oakland on Feb. 15.

The Thunderbirds (12-11/7-6 Summit League) have won five of their last seven games but saw a three-game winning streak come to an end in an 85-64 loss at North Dakota State on Thursday night. With the loss SUU dropped from fourth to fifth place in The Summit League, a half-game behind Western Illinois, which beat IPFW, 62-52, on Thursday. 

South Dakota State (18-6/10-2 Summit League) has also won five of its last seven and nine of its last 11 after posting a 75-60 home win over league-leading Oral Roberts on Thursday. That win pulled the second-place Jackrabbits within a game-and-a-half of ORU.

Jackson Stevenett scored a season-high 25 points but SDSU got 28 points from guard Nate Wolters as the Jacks posted a 75-68 come-back win over the Thunderbirds in Cedar City on Jan. 5 in the teams' previous meeting this season.

The Game: SUU (12-11/7-6) at South Dakota State (18-6/10-2), 7:30 p.m. (CST) in Frost Arena (6,500).

Radio: All Southern Utah men's basketball games are broadcast live by KSUU (91.1 FM) as well as on the internet at www.suu.edu/ksuu. Art Challis is in his 39th season as the Thunderbirds' basketball play-by-play voice. Dr. Challis is joined on home broadcasts by former SUU standout Dean O'Driscoll.

The Series: Saturday's game will mark the 10th meeting between the two schools on the hardwood. SDSU holds a 7-2 edge in the series, and has won five straight games against SUU, including  all four previous meetings in Brookings, S.D. The Jackrabbits prevailed at home 96-79 last season

Affiliations: Southern Utah is in its 15th and final season in The Summit League. All but two of SUU's sports compete in The Summit, with football a member of the Great West Conference and gymnastics an affiliate member of the Western Athletic Conference. Most of SUU's programs will move into the Big Sky Conference in 2012. North Dakota State is also a member of The Summit League.

Videostreaming/Live Stats at www.suutbirds.com: All of Southern Utah's 2011-12 home games are video-streamed on the SUU athletic website at www.suutbirds.com. Live stats for all home games and most road games are also be available. Video streams are on a pay basis but there is no cost for live stats.

Thunderbird Club Luncheons: The Thunderbird Club's weekly no-host luncheon is held Mondays at noon in the Tradition Room in the home of President Michael Benson. The public is invited to attend the luncheons where Southern Utah's in-season coaches talk about their upcoming contests and review the past week's action.

SUU To Face UCR In BracketBuster: Southern Utah's regular-season men's basketball schedule had the TBA removed and replaced with UC Riverside on Monday as the Sears BracketBuster match-ups were announced. The Thunderbirds will travel to Riverside, Calif., for a Feb. 18, game and the Highlanders will return the visit next season. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. (PST) in UCR's Student Rec Center.

Next Up: The Thunderbirds return home next week to host Western Illinois on Feb. 9 and IUPUI on Feb. 11. The following week they visit Oakland and play at UC Riverside in a Sears Bracket Busters match-up.

The Coaches: 

Head Coach Roger Reid (Weber State '68) is in his fifth season on the Southern Utah bench. Reid takes a career Division I mark of 204-167 - including a 52-91 record at SUU - into the game. His record includes six years as head coach at Brigham Young. He is 4-6 vs. North Dakota State.

Coach Reid's career has spanned virtually every level of the coaching strata, including the high school, junior college, and NCAA Division I levels as well as in the NBA and international ranks. He is probably best known for his success at Brigham Young University, where he led the Cougars to five NCAA tournament berths and three Western Athletic Conference championships. He has also coached the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and the Hangzhou Horses of the Chinese Basketball Association. Reid coached Snow College to a conference title and a No. 18 national ranking in his final season on the bench there.

Reid is assisted by Ron Carling (BYU '70), a 40-year coaching veteran who is also entering his fifth season with the program; Johnny Brown (New Mexico '86), an 18-year veteran of the coaching ranks who is in his fifth year in Cedar City; and assistant Kenya Crandell (Nebraska-Kearney '96) who is entering his 15th season as a collegiate coach and his fourth year at SUU.

Captains: This year's captains are SUU's three seniors: Ray Jones, Jr., Matt Massey, and Ramell Taylor.

Last Game:

• SUU got a season-high 27 points from its bench at North Dakota State. The previous bench-high was 24 points against NAIA Southern Virginia (Nov. 11), while the previous high in a road game was 23 at Weber State (Dec. 12).
• Freshman center Cal Hanks came off the bench to score a career-high six points against the Bison. Wade Collie added nine points off the bench, his most since scoring 12 at Oral Roberts on Dec. 3, while Tyson Koehler scored a season-high eight points vs. the Bison.
• SUU tied its season-high with 10 steals at NDSU. The T-Birds also had 10 steals against the Bison the first time the teams met this season in Cedar City.
• SUU had just four turnovers in the second half at NDSU, but gave it away 10 times in the first frame, including five in the first four minutes when the Bison built a 16-2 lead from which the Thunderbirds never recovered.

Thunderbird Notes:

Leaders

• Scoring: Three T-Birds sport double-figure scoring averages: Stevenett at 14.0, Taylor at 12.8 ppg and Heuir at 10.3. Jones was averaging 10.0 ppg heading into the NDSU game but came away with just four points to dip to 9.8 ppg. In conference games Stevenett is averaging 16.6 ppg, Taylor is at 12.2 ppg, Jones checks in at 10.5 ppg and Heuir averages 9.8.
• On the Glass: Stevenett has pulled down 129 rebounds to lead the team with 5.6 per game, while Taylor has 108, an average of 4.7. The Thunderbirds have out-rebounded their opponents by a 32.3-29.9 average.

In the Nation

• As a team SUU headed into the week ranked 20th in the nation in field goal percentage, at .484. Stevenett's .498 shooting percentage ranked 78th.
• The Thunderbirds ranked 34th in the nation and atop The Summit League with an average of 15.3 assists per game as well. Jones came into the week 54th in the nation with 5.2 dimes per game.
• Hey buddy, can you spare a dime? SUU has 347 assists, an average of 15.09 a game. That's 96 more than its opponents combined (251, 10.91 apg). The Thunderbirds had just 10 assists at North Dakota State, its fewest since being credited with just seven at IPFW on Jan. 3.

Scouting the Jackrabbits:

SDSU has averaged 79.7 points per game on 46.8 percent shooting (.390 threes) while holding opponents to  an average of 69.8 points on .451 shooting (.318 threes). The Jackrabbits have connected on 72 percent of their free throws and have out-rebounded their opponents by an average of 35.6-to-33.1 per game.

Four 'Jacks are scoring in double figures. Junior guard Nate Wolters (6-3, 190), senior wing Griffan Callahan (6-4, 200), sophomore center Jordan Dykstra (6-8, 240) and sophomore wing Chad White (6-6, 21). Wolters averages 20.9 points and a team-high 6.3 assists  while pulling down 5.0 rebounds per game, while Callahan adds 11.5 points and a team-best 5.3 boards. Dykstra averages 11.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, while White checks in at 10.0 ppg.

SDSU is 9-0 at home this season, 5-0 in Summit League games. The Jackrabbits also have one of the League's signature road wins this season, a 92-73 triumph at Washington back on Dec. 18.