Men's Basketball 2/3/2015 10:43:00 PM SUU Strategic Communication

Thunderbirds Moving Forward

CEDAR CITY, Utah – Southern Utah (5-14, 2-6) will look to get back on track Thursday night when North Dakota (7-13, 3-6) comes to the Centrum Arena. UND is coming off a big win against Idaho State and is currently one win ahead of SUU in the Big Sky Standings. The Thunderbirds will try to regroup and gather a win after the tough loss Saturday night against Northern Arizona.

Head Coach Nick Robinson stated that the team's confidence was shaken in the first half Saturday night, but the team played a good second half and is moving forward. “We understand where we are and what we need to do, but now it's about coming out and performing.”

North Dakota has three players who average double-digit points. Senior forward, Jaron Nash leads the team with 11.9 points per game along with 6.6 rebounds. Junior guard, Estan Tyler averages just lower than Nash at 11.5 points per game, but also contributes 2.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Quinton Hooker, a sophomore guard, averages 11 points per game while also adding 4.2 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game, along with 1.6 steals.

UND is averaging 65.8 points per game on 44.3 percent shooting this season but has scored more than that in five of its past six games. North Dakota averages 30.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists per game, however, the UND defense has been able to force its opponents into committing turnovers. North Dakota ranks in the top 100 nationally in steals, where they average 7.1 steals per game. UND is coming off a home win against Idaho State, 80-69 and will look to collect its third road conference win of the season on Thursday night.

Junior guard, AJ Hess said the team is forgetting about Saturday night and looking forward to this week. “We are looking to have a better game, obviously. We are looking to defend and rebound to the best of our abilities and it should play out in our favor,” Hess said.

After hosting North Dakota on Thursday night, the Thunderbirds will stay home to face the Bears of Northern Colorado (11-9, 6-3). UNC is riding a two-game winning streak, with wins coming against Idaho State and Weber State last week. Before coming to the Centrum Arena the Bears will travel to Flagstaff to take on Northern Arizona on Thursday. Northern Colorado's offense has been tough on opponents all season. The Bears are averaging 75.7 points per game while shooting 48.7 percent from the field, both stats rank in the top 30 nationally. The three-point line is where UNC does a lot of its damage, shooting 41.2 percent from beyond the arch; the seventh best percentage amongst all Division-I teams.

Bears guards, Tevin Svihovec and Cameron Michael, who average 12.8 and 12.4 points per game respectively, lead the team in scoring. Svihovec also contributes 3.5 rebounds and three assists. Senior forward, Dominique Lee averages nearly ten points and seven rebounds for Northern Colorado, while shooting 62.3 percent from the field. UNC currently sits fourth in the Big Sky standings and three wins behind league-leader Sacramento State.

Both games are set to tip at 7:00 p.m. MST with live stats online at suutbirds.com. Live audio can be heard online as well as the radio on KSUB 590 AM. Live video can be seen for every home game at watchbigsky.com or on the Watch Big Sky app.

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