OGDEN, Utah -- The contest took five extra minutes and featured 22 lead changes, but the Thunderbird men's basketball team picked up their first Big Sky Conference victory of the 2018-19 campaign on Saturday night against rival Weber State 90-82 in overtime.
"I thought we competed for 45 minutes," SUU head coach Todd Simon said. "I thought it was one of our better performances. We got back to our identity defensively, that was the key for us, and we had a lot of guys step up. We defended without fouling much better, I though we did a pretty good job on the boards and offensively we were much more patient."
The victory improves the Thunderbirds to 6-7 on the season and 1-3 in the Big Sky. The victory also broke a six-game losing streak against the Wildcats dating back to 2016.
After an incredibly tight second half, Dre Marin toed the free throw line for the Thunderbirds with 23 seconds on the clock. He hit both, which tied the contest up at 70-70. The T-Birds managed to get a stop defensively, and forced their second overtime period of the season.
Once overtime started, the T-Birds got hot. Andre Adams made the first shot of the period for SUU, and on their second possession Marin hit a triple for the T-Birds to take the lead back following a Weber State three pointer.
"He's coming into his own," Simon said about Marin. "He's getting in rhythm now at that point guard position, and the more he does it the more comfortable he's getting. I thought he was the key player of the game for us."
After some free throws back-and-forth, Brandon Better hit a three that extended the Thunderbird lead to seven, 83-76. Following that shot, the T-Birds were able to cruise to their sixth win of the season and a victory over their in-state rival.
The T-Birds are now 2-0 in overtime this season.
The first half wasn't necessarily high scoring, but it was highly competitive as neither the Thunderbirds or the Wildcats led by more than five at any point in the opening 20.
Over the final 3:42 of the first half the T-Birds went on a 5-0 run capped off by a Cameron Oluyitan layup that gave the visitors a 32-30 lead at the break.
The Thunderbirds host 43 percent in the opening half, while the Wildcats were held to 30 percent. Brandon Better led the T-Birds at the break with eight points on two made triples.
The Thunderbirds were incredibly balanced in terms of scoring, with Adams, Marin and Oluyitan all finishing the night with 18 points. That tied a career-high for both Adams and Marin. Better finished the night with 15 for the T-Birds hitting three triples.
Adams secured a double-double for the Thunderbirds pulling in 11 rebounds as well, despite being saddled with four fouls for roughly half of the second period and all of overtime.
"I think he's making that adjustment, it's the first time he's been relied upon at the college level that he needs to play 25 or 30 minutes and I thought for the most part he's making that adjustment," Simon said. "He's learning how to play with fouls, learning to pick his spots, and there's an art to that."
Jerrick Harding finished with 27 for the Wildcats.
"I thought Dre did an excellent job on him and I thought we did a good job guarding ball screens he was involved in," Simon said.
The T-Birds outscored the Wildcats 40-20 in the paint on the evening.
"We wanted to stay on attack and we doubled their big in the post on every catch," Simon said. " We didn't want Braxton to beat us inside-out and our guys executed that very well."
The Thunderbirds will have a week away from competition before hosting Grand Canyon Rival Northern Arizona inside the America First Event Center on January 12.
"It was a confidence boost that we can do it with the identity we had earlier in the year," Simon said about the contest overall. "I thought that was a very important part of this game was just being able to do it again. We showed that if we correct a few little things we're going to be pretty darn good."
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Read all about the Thunderbirds on www.suutbirds.com.
Individual game tickets for the 2018-19 Season are available at www.tbirdtickets.com or at the America First Event Center Ticket Office.
Plays of the Game
