Cedar City, Utah - The SUU women's basketball team played an exhibition on Thursday night inside the Centrum Arena to open their home slate, falling to Colorado State-Pueblo 74–51.

This was the first of two exhibition games the Thunderbirds will play in anticipation of their regular season opener against UNLV on November 14.

SUU head coach Chris Boettcher said despite the loss there were aspects of the game he was excited to see.

“I'm really happy with the tempo we were able to play,” he said. “We didn't finish as well as we need to, we didn't attack the basket, except for Breanu (Reid) as often as we needed to, but happy with the temp of it, now we just have to get smarter and more efficient in it, which is going to be a process.”

Neither team jumped out to a hot start in the first ten minutes and SUU trailed late in the period, but a three-point basket by freshman Breanu Reid late in the quarter pulled SUU closer, but still trailed 19–14.

Jessica Richardson, Darri Frandsen and Sarah McGee all picked up two fouls for the Thunderbirds in the first quarter.

The Thunderwolves were able to extend their lead in the second quarter, and took a 40–28 lead into the halftime break.

The Thunderbirds shot 35 percent in the first half, and missed all seven free throws they shot.

CSUP continued to up its lead as the third quarter carried on, taking a 20 point advantage into the fourth quarter. The Thunderwolves were able to hold on to their lead and finish the contest, winning the game 74–51.

Richardson finished with 16 points for the Thunderbirds, and also pulled in four rebounds. Reid was the second leading scorer with 12 points and six assists. Emma Weinreich led the team in rebounding with seven boards. Richardson said there were some growing pains with a lot of freshmen on the court, but they executed a lot of things well.

“With a really young team you're always going to have to direct a lot,” she said. “But for the most part I felt pretty confident in our team. We were doing a lot of things right. We had dips in the intensity and in our mental capacity of thinking the game through and finding the open person or doing the stuff we've been practicing, but for the most part I felt like we did pretty good at reading the offense.”

Ashley Piper put in 16 points for the Thunderwolves, and Tuileisu Anderson finished the game with 15.