CEDAR CITY, Utah, 11/21/13 – Southern Utah (3-1) picked up its eighth consecutive win over in-state opponent Utah Valley (1-4) with a 74-63 victory in the Centrum Arena Thursday night. Three Thunderbirds scored in double figures, led by sophomore forward Lori Parkinson who finished the game with 15 points on 7-10 shooting and 12 rebounds for her second double-double of the year.
“It was a great effort, everybody played, and I was really pleased with how we played,” stated SUU head coach JR Payne. “I thought we executed really well. We missed too many easy ones, but pretty much everything we called we ran really well.”
Desiree Jackson started the scoring with a three from the right wing and Andrea Jones added another from the corner as SUU went up 6-3 in the early going. Katie Kuklok recorded the first seven points of the game for the Wolverines, who rallied for a 9-6 advantage before Marquelle Funk connected from the outside to even things up. Hailey Mandelko dropped in one more to put SUU up 12-9 as Southern Utah's first four baskets all came from behind the 3-point line.
“That is never the plan,” explained Payne. “We have been shooting a ton of 3-pointers in practice so maybe they felt confident to let them fly.”
Back-to-back layups from Parkinson and Jones gave the Thunderbirds a five-point cushion halfway through the period and a 16-0 run a few minutes later pushed the advantage to 37-20 with 2:01 remaining. Utah Valley picked up a few points at the foul line in the closing moments of the half to trail 37-24 at the break.
Southern Utah went to work inside for a 22-13 advantage on the glass in the first 20 minutes while scoring 12 points in the paint and 13 second chance points. The T-Birds also put up 21 points off 15 UVU turnovers as they came up with six steals in the half.
The Wolverines scored ten quick points in the first four minutes of the second period to narrow the margin to 45-34. SUU answered back with a basket by Moreland and a pair of free throws from freshman Jessica Richardson to push the lead back to 15.
Utah Valley was able to again bring the deficit down to 11 points halfway through period, but a jumper by Parkinson and a driving layup from Jones kept SUU in control. Sophomore guard Ashleigh Munns and Mandelko each added another three to extend the run to 12-4 and the SUU lead to 67-48 with 5:39 left on the clock.
The Thunderbird bench closed out the game from there, outscoring the UVU reserves by a total of 27-13 overall. Freshman Mary Klapperich added to Southern Utah's 3-point tally before the Wolverines knocked down a couple of their own in the final moments to set the final score at 74-63.
Moreland and Mandelko each chipped in another 10 points for the T-Birds who shot over 44 percent from the field as a team and made eight 3-pointers in the win. Jones added nine points and six assists. Kuklok scored a game-high 24 points for Utah Valley, connecting on three shots from the outside. SUU posted a 43-26 rebounding advantage, which led to 26 second chance points and 32 points in the paint.
Southern Utah will be home again this Saturday for another in-state matchup with Westminster. The game is set to tip-off at 5:00 p.m. and will be the front-end of a basketball doubleheader as the Thunderbird men take to the court against UC Riverside at 7:30. Coverage of SUU basketball is available online at www.suutbirds.com.
