Box Score OGDEN, Utah - Despite a strong scoring effort from Brandon Better and Jamal Aytes, the Thunderbird men's basketball team fell on the road Saturday night to the Weber State Wildcats 92-76.
The loss moves the T-Birds to 6-9 on the season and 0-4 in the Big Sky Conference.
Dwayne Morgan had the first five points for the Thunderbirds, put also picked up two fouls during that period. The Wildcats held a 7-5 lead at the first media timeout.
Luckily for the Thunderbirds, with Morgan on the bench Better found his rhythm. Better scored 13 points in the opening half to keep the Thunderbirds in the contest, and the T-Birds trailed the Wildcats by 11 after 20 minutes of play.
Weber State's lead at the break was the highest it reached in the opening 20 minutes.
Southern Utah opened the second half on a 9-2 run, cutting the Wildcat lead down to five. Unfortunately for the Thunderbirds, the Wildcats starting finding their groove after that point. Weber State went on a 10-0 run leading into the second to last media timeout of the game, and held a 74-58 advantage at that point.
Despite a late 7-0 push from the T-Birds capped off by a Jadon Cohee triple, Weber State pulled away down the stretch 92-76.
"We've got to get better defensively," SUU head coach Todd Simon said. "We have stretches where we show we can do it, but we're struggling on that end to find an identity and that's where they exploited us."
Better led the way for the Thunderbirds offensively, scoring 25 points thanks to 13-of-15 shooting from the charity stripe. Aytes finished 7-of-8 from the field and poured in 18 points. Both players came off the bench in the contest.
"They found it and gave us a boost when we needed it," Simon said about the duo. "It's good for them when they're aggressive."
Morgan finished with 13 points and led the team with seven rebounds. Cohee finished with 12 points and three assists.
Jerrick Harding had a huge night for the Wildcats, scoring 31 points on the evening.
"We struggled to keep him in front of us," Simond said. "He's a good, quick guard and they run a good offense. He's been doing that to a lot of teams, and certainly did it to us tonight."
The Thunderbirds will have next Thursday off, but will be back in action against Northern Arizona next Saturday.
"We need to recreate our identity this week," Simon said looking forward. "We've got to get back in our defensive mindset, so this will be good for us. It's another week to get acclimated to Dwayne, another week to get guys healthy and also work on some continuity."
The matchup between SUU and NAU will be broadcast live on Eleven Sports.
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Read all about the Thunderbirds on www.suutbirds.com.
Season tickets for the 2017-18 SUU men's basketball campaign can be purchased at tbirdtickets.com or at the America First Event Center Ticket Office.
