CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Southern Utah Thunderbirds defeated the La Verne Leopards with a 103-88 victory, marking back-to-back triple-digit Thunderbird wins to round out exhibition play.
"We need to clean up some things (defensively). Giving up 89 points is more than we wanted to give up. We had stretches where we showed how good we can be, but I don't think we were competitively mature enough to string it all together," said head coach Todd Simon. "From that standpoint I wasn't very satisfied, but obviously offensively we're coming together. Our tempo is kind of where we want it. We scored 103, so that shows the potential of what we can do on that end of the floor.
Randy Onwuasor led the way with 33 points, shooting 12-19 from the field and 2-3 from the three-point line. Christian Musoko added 13 points as Race Parsons and Brayden Holker each added 11. Ivan Madunic led the team in rebounds with eight as John Marshall led in assists with four.
Onwuasor has now posted back-to-back 30+ point games.
"I'm just giving credit to my team. They've been finding me, and I've just been able to hit shots these last two games," Onwuasor said. "Coach told me to be aggressive, so I just kept being aggressive, and I kept attacking."
The Thunderbirds shot 34-68 from the field for a 50% field goal percentage. From beyond the arch, the T-Birds shot 37.5% and 69% from the free throw line.
"We did good, but we need to do a better job defensively," Musoko said. "We know we're going to score, so we just need to do a better job on defense."
The Leopards took a quick 5-0 lead to open the game and held onto the lead until the 13th minute as the Thunderbirds fought back to tie the game at 30.
La Verne pulled back ahead with back-to-back treys before Musoko and Onwuasor each knocked in shots to knot the game once again, this time at 36-36. A pair of Decardo Day free throws gave SUU its first lead of the game at 38-36 with just over four minutes to play in the opening half.
Southern Utah led by just three before a set of free throws from Marshall and a three-pointer from Parsons gave the Thunderbirds a 51-43 halftime advantage.
The T-Bird momentum carried over into the second half, stretching their lead to 60-45 just three minutes in. From there on out, Southern Utah held at least a double-digit lead until the final buzzer as SUU captured the 103-89 win.
Following two exhibition wins, the Thunderbirds open their season with Valparaiso in Valparaiso, Ind. on Nov. 11. at 6:00 p.m.
"We have guys that haven't worn this jersey and guys that haven't played together, so it's going to be a constant evolution," said Simon. "We're going to take this thing game-by-game and just keep getting better."
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