CEDAR CITY, Utah - The Southern Utah women's basketball team picked up their first Big Sky Conference win Saturday afternoon with a 84-79 overtime victory over the Weber State Wildcats.
Harley Hansen and Ashley Larsen both had career games to pace the Thunderbirds in the victory. Hansen led all scorers with 28 points and also pulled in four rebounds. Larsen set a new career-high in scoring with 25 points and tied her career-highs in steals with four and blocks with three. She also led the team in rebounds with eight.
The Thunderbirds got off to a hot start, knocking down their first three baskets to jump out to a 7-2 lead. They were able to keep the offensive pressure up throughout the opening quarter, maintaining at least a two point lead. A three-point play by Breanu Reid at the end of the quarter made it 22-12 after the first 10 minutes of play.
The Wildcats opened the second quarter with an 11-0 run to take a 23-22 lead with 6:30 to go in the first half. From that point on the lead changed hands five times. Weber State held a 32-31 lead with 45 seconds left, but a three-pointer from Hansen made it 34-32 at halftime.
Hansen and Reid both had nine points in the first half and Larsen had seven.
The third quarter is really where Hansen and Larsen began to take the game into their own hands. The two juniors accounted for 15 of the 21 points scored by SUU in the quarter with Larsen scoring three of the first four buckets. With the Wildcats up two halfway through the quarter, Hansen scored five unanswered points to put the Thunderbirds back up by three. They would go in the final 10 minutes with a 55-50 lead.
The fourth quarter did not go the way the Thunderbirds would have liked as they committed seven turnovers and were outscored by the Wildcats 16-11. A three-pointer from Claudia Armato and four points off the bench from Megan Kamps kept Southern Utah alive and with the game tied at 66-66 Armato made two key steals to keep WSU from scoring and send the game into overtime.
Between the two of them, Hansen and Larsen scored every point for the Thunderbirds in overtime. They had two scores each in the first two minutes of the overtime period to help the T-Birds build a five point lead. That lead would be extended to as much as nine and SUU held the Wildcats to just 33.3 percent from the field to keep them at arms length. The teams traded free throws as the period wound down with the Lady T-Birds coming out on top 84-79.
As a team the Thunderbirds outshot the Wildcats 49.2 percent to 43.9 percent, had just 11 turnovers while forcing 19, and picking up 11 steals.
The Thunderbirds will head back out on the road to take on Northern Arizona next Saturday in Flagstaff.
Tickets
Tickets for the Lady T-Birds' next home game on January 24 against Northern Colorado 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.
Follow Us
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.
