CEDAR CITY, Utah -- In a game that went right down to the wire and required an additional five minutes to decide it, the Thunderbird men's basketball team secured a 78-69 victory over the Pepperdine Waves on Saturday inside the America First Event Center. The victory improved the T-Birds to 5-3 on the season.
With just a touch over one second left in the contest Cameron Oluyitan hit a layup for the T-Birds that tied the contest at 64-64 and forced SUU's first overtime period of the season.
SUU got off to a sluggish start in overtime, and Pepperdine was able to build a four point lead, but that quickly turned around as the Thunderbirds outscored the Waves 14-5 in the closing five minutes to secure a victory.
"We felt like it was a little bit of a second life," SUU head coach Todd Simon said about overtime. "We goofed this game up in the last 10 minutes, and we knew that. … So we had five extra minutes to prove that we could play the right way, and we knew we would separate if we defended, rebounded, shared the ball, took the best look we can get and we did that."
Oluyitan, who played with four fouls down the stretch of the contest and all of overtime, commented on the closing moments of the game.
"It was unbelievable," he said. "I just saw that he was pressing up on me, so I just figured I'd go and nobody stepped up so I had a wide open layup, and I took it."
Brandon Better led the T-Birds in scoring with 17. Oluyitan finished with 15 and Jacob Calloway dropped in 11. Harrison Butler led the squad in rebounding with 12 to go along with eight points.
SUU shot 60 percent in overtime, compared to Pepperdine's 13 percent.
The T-Birds started the contest unconscious from behind the three-point line, scoring their first 15 points with triples.
SUU led for the entirety of the first half, but a late push by the Waves cut the T-Bird lead to six at the half. The Thunderbirds hit eight triples in the opening frame.
The Thunderbirds led by as many as 11 early in the second half, but as it wore on the contest became a back-and-forth affair and with under 10 minutes to play no team led by more than four.
For the second-consecutive season the Thunderbirds have secured a winning non-conference record, which is the first time that's happened since the team made the transition to Division I.
The T-Birds will play their final non-conference game of the 2018-19 campaign next Friday when they head to Los Angeles to face off against the USC Trojans.
Follow the Thunderbirds all season @SUUBasketball on Twitter and Instagram and by liking the Southern Utah Basketball page on Facebook.
Read all about the Thunderbirds on www.suutbirds.com.
Individual game tickets for the 2018-19 Season are available at
www.tbirdtickets.com or at the America First Event Center Ticket Office.
PLAYS OF THE GAME
