CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Thunderbird men's basketball team suffered a loss to the Portland State Vikings on Thursday night in a contest that required five extra minutes, as PSU (17-11, 7-8 Big Sky) pulled out a 96-91 overtime victory over SUU (10-16, 4-11 Big Sky).  

"It's tough to lose a game when you lead for 38 minutes, and we did a lot of things right, but we've got to continue to get better and obviously rebounding was our deal today," SUU head coach Todd Simon said following the contest. "We gave up 22 offensive rebounds because we're not squeezing that ball, it's physical and you've got to be able to rebound without fouling."

The Thunderbirds started hot, jumping out to an early 9-0 lead. That effort was helped greatly by Jadon Cohee, who started the game 3-of-3 from the field. Thunderbird Dwayne Morgan also had two blocks in the opening minutes that helped keep the Vikings off the scoreboard.

As the half wore on, the Thunderbirds went on a three minute scoreless streak and the Vikings took advantage. PSU got hot at the right time, and pulled within four. The Vikings' streak was halted by a Morgan layup that pushed the T-Bird lead to 26-20.

With under eight minutes to play the T-Birds went on a six minute scoreless streak, but immediately turned things around by finishing the opening 20 minutes on a 6-0 run to take a 43-40 lead into the break.

The start of the second half was a back-and-forth affair, but the T-Birds found some momentum when a Dre Marin triple put them up 59-52.

After the first media timeout the Vikings went on a 6-0 run, which was broken by a Brandon Better stepback jumper to push the T-Bird lead back to 62-58. A Marin triple immediately after pushed the T-Bird lead even higher.

The game stayed close all the way down the stretch, and the game was sent to overtime when Portland State's Holland Woods hit a three-pointer with three seconds remaining.

When the game moved to overtime, the Vikings were able to outscore the Thunderbirds 16-11 and take the game 96-91.

Morgan led the Thunderbirds in scoring with 21 points in 30 minutes of game time. He also finished with a double-double, pulling in 10 rebounds.

Marin finished with 18 points, and Better put in 16 for the Thunderbirds.

Marin's 18 points was a new career high.

Morgan, Jamal Aytes and Ivan Madunic all fouled out in the contest for Southern Utah.

For the Vikings, Woods led the team with 20 points. Brandon Hollins had a double-double for PSU with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Portland State's largest lead of the contest was that of the final score.

The Thunderbirds will return home for their final regular season game in the AFEC on Saturday, as they host Sacramento State for a Senior Day matchup.

"The issues in this one for us were clearly rebounding, and we were down to three post players and all three of them can't foul out," Simon said looking forward. "They've got to figure out and adjust to be able to stay on the floor."

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