BOISE, Idaho - The tenth-seeded Southern Utah women's basketball team opened play in the Big Sky Conference Championship tournament Monday evening with a huge 64-56 upset victory over the seventh-seeded Montana Grizzlies.
The victory marked the first since 2013-14, when the T-Birds were the Regular Season Champions of the Big Sky.
"I'm just really excited for them," SUU head coach Tracy Sanders said following the contest during her interview with PlutoTV. "We had a game plan, we had just come off playing Montana so I think there was a little bit of confidence there but they were excited and ready to play."
The T-Birds started incredibly hot, jumping out to an 11-2 lead after Montana hit the first shot of the contest. The run was capped by a Bre Reid triple and a layup by Rebecca Cardenas.
The Griz eventually found some momentum, but the T-Birds held a 20-11 advantage at the end of the first period.
The Thunderbirds held onto their lead through the second half, and took a 33-23 advantage into the halftime break.
Cardenas led all scorers at the break by a large margin with 13 points. She also had eight rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
Midway through the third quarter the Griz had cut the T-Bird lead down to five. However, the T-Birds were able to weather the storm and took an eight point lead into the fourth quarter.
Down the stretch the Griz were able to cut SUU's lead down to four with just over four minutes to play, but the T-Birds were able to make the right plays down the stretch and hit enough free throws to knock off the No. 7 seeded Griz.
Both Cardenas and Ashley Larsen finished the contest with a double-double. Cardenas had 18 points and 14 rebounds, while Larsen had 13 points and 10 rebounds. This was Larsen's first career double-double.
Reid finished with 15 points, while Harley Hansen had 10 points and finished 6-of-6 from the free throw line.
"The first year you're going to have those bumps along the way, but to give them credit it was a group that bought in from day one," Sanders told PlutoTV.
The Lady T-Birds will continue play in the Big Sky Conference Championship tournament tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. against No. 2 seeded Northern Colorado.
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