Cedar City, Utah – The Southern Utah University Thunderbirds welcomed their in-state rival, the Weber State Wildcats, into Centrum Arena Saturday evening. Early turnover troubles and a failure to effectively move the ball doomed the Thunderbirds from the start, as they fell 70-51.

Southern Utah head coach Chris Boettcher was disappointed in his team's performance.

“It was a very disappointing game, one of the few times this year we didn't compete at the level I know we can compete at,” he said. “For the most part, the team didn't get better tonight.”

Boettcher pointed at his team's wavering confidence as an issue moving forward.

Weber State came out of the gate swinging, applying full-court pressure on the Thunderbirds. Weber State caused 11 Southern Utah turnovers in the first quarter alone.

Despite the early frustrations and foul troubles, the Thunderbirds' defense kept the game relatively close, trailing only 17-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Weber State continued to run their full-court press in the second quarter. The Wildcats used their pressure defense to open up an 11-0 run, which pushed the score to 32-19 going into halftime.

Freshman guard Bre Reid came out hot for the Thunderbirds, hitting a three pointer and following up that basket with two more field goals. Reid only scored two points in the first half, but scored seven points in the first two minutes of the third quarter. Following Reid's leadership, the Thunderbirds suddenly turned it into a six point game.

The Wildcats refused to rollover, however, and scored the next seven points to push the score back to 39-28. Weber State used that momentum to push an 18-3 run before Reid got hot again.

The score at the end of the third quarter was 55-40, in Weber State's favor. Reid scored 15 of the Thunderbirds' 21 third quarter points.

Despite the large deficit, Southern Utah continued to battle for the rest of the night, cutting the lead to 11 points, before eventually losing by 19.

Reid finished with 18 points, five assists and five rebounds, despite playing with four fouls the entire fourth quarter. The Thunderbirds committed 29 total turnovers as a team. Weber State shot 18-19 from the free throw line and recorded 17 total steals.