RENO, Nev. - The Thunderbird men's basketball team saw their run in Reno come to an end on Friday night, as they fell to the Eastern Washington Eagles 82-70.  

The Thunderbirds finished the season 13-19, more than doubling up last year's win total.

"We tried really hard, and that's something that I really appreciate about this group is we haven't had to manage much effort, they give us everything they have," SUU head coach Todd Simon said. "I thought we showed some fatigue, we never wanted to let that on, but we're on day 11 on the road with five games and eight days, and I thought some of the travels and the step late stuff showed a little bit of our tiredness in our legs. But they played so hard in this stretch, and I'm really proud for ending the season on a high note in terms of how they represented the university this week."  

Before this season the Thunderbirds had not advanced to the semifinals in the Big Sky Conference Championship Tournament, just one year removed from winning their first game in the event.  

Freshman Dre Marin hit the first two shots for the T-Birds, both from behind the three point line, but the Eagles jumped out to an 11-8 lead at the first media timeout.

After the Eagles went on a run, Dwayne Morgan hit back-to-back buckets to cut the Eagle lead to 17-15 with just a shade over 12 minutes left in the opening half.

However, that's where the Eagles found their groove. EWU went on a 15-3 run, and the Thunderbirds went nearly three minutes without a point. Jack Perry hit a three as time expired in the opening half to complete an impressive effort by the Eagles and put them up 43-31 at the break.

The Eagles shot 71 percent in the opening half, compared to Southern Utah's 43 percent.

The Thunderbirds hung around most of the second half, never letting the Eagle lead get out of hand, but ultimately couldn't make the shots down the stretch to climb all the way back and the Eagles prevailed to move on to the Big Sky Championship game.  

"You've just got to tip your hats off to Eastern Washington," Jamal Aytes said following the contest. "They came out with a great gameplan."

James McGee, who ended his Southern Utah career on Friday as the fourth all-time leading scorer in SUU history, said the last week in Reno was something he and the team will never forget.

"It was a fun ride," he said. "Hopefully it catapults this team next year to bigger and better things. I think the younger guys learned a lot of things. I learned a lot of things as well as one of the veterans on the team. It meant a lot, it meant everything to everyone on the staff and on the team and I just hope they can continue to keep it going."

Morgan and Jadon Cohee led the Thunderbirds in scoring, both finishing the contest with 15 points. Morgan shot 7-of-10 from the field in the contest.

Marin finished with 13 points, shooting 3-of-3 from the three point line.

Bogdan Bliznyuk became the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Big Sky on Friday night, finishing the contest with 32 points. He shot 13-of-17 from the field in the game.

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