MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Southern Utah men's basketball team wrapped up a two-game road trip on Saturday in the state of Michigan, as they fell to the Central Michigan Chippewas 95-86.

"We had too many wasted possessions," SUU head coach Todd Simon said. "We shot 55 percent from the floor and lost which tells you a couple of different things, namely that were giving away too many possessions right now. Giving up 18 offensive rebounds and having 16 turnovers feeds directly to the result, so we need to clean up those issues and it's hard to do that on the road."

Both teams got out to a relatively slow start, as the T-Birds had only hit three free throws at the first media timeout.

As the opening half wore on both teams picked up the pace. With 6:32 to play in first 20 Brandon Better hit a triple to cut the CMU lead to six, but the Chippewas were able to stay in control and took a 42-31 lead into the halftime break.

CMU held on to a sizeable lead in the second half until Cameron Oluyitan went on an individual 7-0 run to pull the T-Birds back within nine. Unfortunately for SUU, each time they got hot, so did the opposition.

The T-Birds had a stretch where they were five-of-six from the field, but due to impressive play by CMU it only cut their lead to 11.

SUU hung around, but ultimately couldn't climb all the way back and fell to the opposition from the Mid-American Conference.  

Jason Richardson hit an SUU career-high on Saturday, finishing with 22 points and shooting 8-of-11 from the field. He also hit three-of-three from behind the three-point line.

Better finished with a season-high 17 points, including knocking down four triples. Cameron Oluyitan finished with 12 points, which all came in the second half.  

The T-Birds showed improvement from half to half, putting up 55 points in the second after only having 31 in the first. They also shot 62 percent in the final 10 minutes.

"On the offensive end we were able to get good looks, we're able to score the ball, we just have to do a better job making teams earn every possession with better transition defense and better rebounding," Simon said.  

SUU dealt with foul trouble once again on Saturday, as Andre Adams and Harrison Butler both fouled out of the contest, while Dre Marin finished with four.  

The Thunderbirds will return home next Saturday following Finals Week to face off against Pepperdine at 1 p.m. MT.

"We've got to bounce back, we've got to find our groove again," Simon said. "Every team goes through it, and we've got so many young guys playing that we need to find our rhythm and a couple guys need to step up."

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