CEDAR CITY, Utah - For the first time since they were the reigning Big Sky champs, the Southern Utah women's basketball team has started a season 3-0 at home. They were able to accomplish the feat by taking down the Utah Valley Wolverines Tuesday afternoon 60-59 in comeback fashion.
"It's a great learning experience for us to be down for quite a bit and battle back," head coach Tracy Sanders said. "It proves what we are capable of. We really try to focus on defense and we did a good job of getting stops and making big shots there at the end."
The Thunderbirds opened the game with the best first quarter they have played all season. They started with a 5-0 run with a free throw from Rebecca Cardenas and buckets from Ashley Larsen and Megan Kamps. The Wolverines were able to get back within one, but the T-Birds outscored them 16-12.
When the second quarter began, Southern Utah went cold. The Wolverines went on a 10-0 run over the first five minutes and 50 seconds of the quarter while holding the Thunderbirds to 0-for-8 from the field and taking a 22-16 lead. The T-Birds were able to tie the game back up at 24-24 on a Harley Hansen three-pointer, but that was the last time they would score in the half, trailing 29-24 at the break.
Hansen had eight points and Larsen had five rebounds in the opening half.
The Wolverines jumped out to a double-digit lead in the third quarter, getting as high as 13 points and holding the Thunderbirds at a distance for most of the quarter. The T-Birds were outscored 21-15 and trailed by 11 going into the fourth quarter.
Southern Utah came out and were able to quickly cut the UVU lead to seven on quick baskets from Breanu Reid and Hansen. A bucket from the Wolverines made it 52-43 UVU, but back-to-back-to-back threes from Cardenas made it 54-52. Kiana Thomas was able to tie the game with a layup with 5:31 to go.
With the Wolverines having gone back up 59-57, Hansen hit what would be the game winning three with 2:28 to go to make it 60-59 SUU.
Hansen and Cardenas were the two top scorers in the game. Hansen finished with a career-high 21 points on eight field goals, including four three-pointers. She also added four rebounds, two steals, and a block. Cardenas had 16 points and was 5-for-11 from beyond the arc, with four of them coming in the second half. She also picked up eight rebounds, five assists, three blocks, and two steals.
Thomas also finished in double-digits with 10 points and was one rebound shy of a double-double with nine.
With Tuesday's win, the Lady T-Birds have already matched their season win total from 2017-18.
The Thunderbirds will look to move to 4-0 at home when they host the Denver Pioneers on Saturday December 8 at 1:00 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets for the Lady T-Birds' next home game on December 8 against Denver are available at tbirdtickets.com or the America First Event Center Ticket Office. Fans can also purchase a Women's Sports Pass for access to all 2018-19 home games.
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Stay up to date during the 2018-19 Lady T-Bird Basketball season by following @SUUWBasketball on Twitter and Instagram and liking the Southern Utah Women's Basketball page on Facebook.
