CEDAR CITY, Utah - The Southern Utah women's basketball team picked up, yet another home win Tuesday afternoon, 72-58 over Oral Roberts University. The T-Birds move to 3-0 at home and 4-2 overall on the season, their best start since the 2014-15 season.
Rebecca Cardenas led the Thunderbirds in scoring with 17 points and set a new season-high in assists with eight. Harley Hansen followed with 14 points and Claudia Armato set a new career-high with 11. Shalyn Fano led the team in rebounding with seven and Ashley Larsen set a new career-high in blocks with four.
As a team, the Thunderbirds shot 60 percent from the field while holding the Golden Eagles to just 38.6 percent. They also forced ORU into 22 turnovers and scored 30 of their points off those turnovers.
The game started out as a tight contest, as neither team led by more than four points throughout the first quarter and the score tied four times in the first ten minutes. The two teams went into the second quarter tied at 16-16.
The T-Birds used the second quarter to pull away from the Golden Eagles by shooting 81.8 percent from the floor (9-for-11) while holding ORU to just 30.8 percent (4-for-13). They put together a 14-0 run and closed out the half on a buzzer beating three-pointer from Hansen. They led 38-24 at the break. Hansen led all scorers with 10 points.
The two teams played a pretty equal second half, each scoring 34 points, with SUU outscoring ORU 17-16 in the third quarter and ORU taking the advantage in the fourth quarter, 18-17. The Golden Eagles were never able to break the Thunderbird lead down to single-digits however, only getting as close as 11 in the fourth quarter.
The Thunderbirds will host UC Irvine (3-5) next on Friday December 6 at 6:30 p.m. inside the America First Event Center.
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Stay up to date during the 2019-20 Lady T-Bird Basketball season by following @SUUWBasketball on Twitter and Instagram and liking the Southern Utah Women's Basketball page on Facebook.
Tickets
Tickets for the Lady T-Birds' next home game on December 6 against UC Irvine 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.
