PHOENIX, Ariz. - The Southern Utah women's basketball team took their first loss of the season Thursday night, falling 69-65 at the hands of Grand Canyon University.
Rebecca Cardenas was the leading scorer for the T-Birds, leading all scorers with 18 points on the night. She also had seven assists, two rebounds, and two steals. Jessica Chatman followed right behind her with 17 points, 15 of them scored in the second half. Chatman was the team's leading rebounder with eight and went 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Shalyn Fano was the only other Thunderbird in double-digit points, putting up 11 on 3-for-3 from three-point range.
The T-Birds never held a lead in the game, as they got off to a very slow start, shooting just 21 percent from the field in the first half. The Lopes put together a couple of short runs throughout the first half that put more and more distance between them and the Thunderbirds.
They held a 13-point lead at halftime.
The Thunderbirds came out of the break and put together a 10-2 run that cut the GCU lead to five in just three minutes of play. The Lopes immediately responded however and pushed their lead back out to 13 points and kept it there throughout the rest of the quarter for the most part.
GCU extended their lead to 17 with just over five minutes left to play in the game. That was when the T-Birds launched their comeback effort behind a 13-2 run that cut the lead to just six with 30 seconds to play. A three from Chatman with 15 seconds left brought them within three points of the Lopes, but the home team was able to hang on for the 69-65 win.
The Thunderbirds will be back home next Tuesday, November 19 when they host UNLV.
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Tickets
Tickets for the Lady T-Birds' next home game against UNLV 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 2019-20 regular season home games.
