CEDAR CITY, Utah - Despite holding their opponent to just 16.7 percent from beyond the arc, the Southern Utah women's basketball team dropped their first home Big Sky matchup to the Idaho State Bengals 57-69.
"We had to work so hard offensively to get a shot and defensively I felt like we made it too easy for them and a lot of that I think comes down to just communication errors and a lack of focus," head coach Tracy Sanders said. "I thought Geassy was a great spark for us tonight to come in a do what she did and Jess Chatman came in a did a great job. Rebounding was something that we really stressed, we needed to come in a crash the boards, and those two I thought were aggressive and did a good job of going in there and being physical."
The Thunderbirds opened the first quarter the same way they have during Big Sky play, scoring on three of their first four baskets and jumping out to an early lead. The lead wouldn't last long however as the Bengals took their first lead of the game with 4:48 remaining in the quarter. They would push that lead to as much as 10 before the quarter came to a close.
The Thunderbirds outscored the Bengals 15-13 in the second quarter, cutting their lead down to just two before a Grace Kenyon three-pointer made it 32-27 at halftime. Southern Utah was 4-for-8 from three in the first half, two of them coming from Breanu Reid who had nine first half points.
Southern Utah played a close second half, but would not be able to catch the Bengals, getting outscored by two in the third quarter and five in the final quarter of play. Geassy Germano provided a spark in the fourth quarter, coming off the bench and scoring six points in six minutes. However it wouldn't be enough as Idaho State shot 60 percent from the field in the second half while holding the Thunderbirds to just 29 percent.
Harley Hansen was the leading scorer for the Thunderbirds with 15 points. She also had six rebounds and five steals. The Southern Utah bench had 19 points in the loss, with Jessica Chatman contributing 10 and Geassy Germano scoring six in just 10 minutes. The team also forced 16 Bengal turnovers.
The Thunderbirds will host the Weber State Wildcats on Saturday in the America First Event Center. The game is set to tip off at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets for the Lady T-Birds' next home game on January 5 against Weber State 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.
