CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Ramblers of Loyola Chicago would jump out to a five point lead early and never look back, defeating the SUU men's basketball team 73-57 on Friday night.
The Ramblers jumped out to a 10-point lead by the first media timeout of the night. LUC hit four out of their first seven shots and used a 7-0 run to get their 12-2 lead. SUU cut into the Ramblers lead after a three from Christian Thompson and jumper from A.J. Hess to make it a seven-point game by the second media timeout.
LUC would make it a 13-point lead with two quick threes. The Ramblers would push that lead to 15 when the Thunderbird offense found their groove, hitting their next five of seven field goals and closing the lead to 10. Loyola would answer, hitting six of their next eight shots to take an 18-point lead into the break.
SUU had two separate times where they had scoring droughts of three or more minutes in the first half. They shot 40 percent from the field and 38 percent from three. The Thunderbirds shot just 25 percent from the free throw line and were outrebounded 19-10.
The Thunderbirds would come out of the locker room with much more intensity in the second half, scoring almost as many points in the first six minutes as they did in the first half. James McGee came off the bench, and just as he has done in many games before, would provide a spark for SUU, making two quick threes. SUU would pull to within 13 points but that's as close as they would get as LUC won, 73-57.
Hess led the Thunderbirds with 13 points in the game and Tyler Rawson had five rebounds. Travon Langston posted three assists to just one turnover. McGee ended the game with 12 points on four three pointers, all in the second half.
SUU shot 42.6 percent from the field for the game and 41.7 percent from downtown. Amazingly, the Thunderbirds did not shoot a single free throw in the second half and would finish the game 1-4 for just 25 percent from the charity stripe.
The Thunderbirds head to the Las Vegas Classic on Monday where they will face Arkansas Pine Bluff in the first round of the tournament.
