Cedar City, Utah - In their final tuneup before the start of the regular season, the SUU women's basketball team fell to Hope International University 75–64 inside the Centrum Arena on Monday night in an exhibition contest.
“I'm excited about the progress we made from last week to this week,” SUU head coach Chris Boettcher said about SUU's performance. “Obviously there's still a lot of areas we need to grow as a team on, especially defensively.”
Hope International jumped out to a 6–0 lead in the first quarter, but the Thunderbirds were able to get going offensively eventually tying the game up at 11–11. The remainder of the quarter remained tight, and HIU held the lead after the first ten minutes 20–19.
The Royals were able to add to their lead in the second quarter, and went into the halftime break with a 45–38 lead. HIU shot 51.7 percent from the field in the first half. The Thunderbirds shot 39.4 percent and 11.1 percent from behind the three-point line.
HIU continued to hold their lead in the third quarter, and despite a late charge by the Thunderbirds to cut the lead to single digits late in the contest, the Royals came away with an 11 point victory.
Freshman Breanu Reid led SUU in scoring with 14, as the freshman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma put in her second solid performance for the Thunderbirds in a row. Reid also had three steals in the contest.
Reid, who finished 5-of-13 from the field and 2-of-3 from behind the arc, which she said isn't generally her strong suit.
“Usually the three-point line is not my profession,” she said. “But in practice coach is always telling me 'you're a good shooter' and Saturday at practice I just put it in my head that I can shoot too and I guess that just fell in place today and I felt more comfortable from Saturday's practice.”
Emma Weinreich also had a big game for the T-Birds, finishing the contest with 11 points and nine rebounds along with Jessica Richardson who had 10 points and eight rebounds.
The Thunderbirds played 12 players Monday night, all all but one recorded a point.
Alexis Perry had a big game for the Royals, scoring 23 points and pulling in eight rebounds. Marissa Rendon finished with 15 points for HIU and Emily Terwilliger finished with 12 points and nine rebounds.
The Thunderbirds will open their regular season Saturday in Las Vegas against the UNLV Rebels. Tip for that contest is scheduled for 4 p.m.
