CEDAR CITY, Utah - The Southern Utah women's basketball team dropped a very hard-fought matchup with BYU Friday afternoon by a score of 74-84.
For the fourth game in a row, Liz Graves led the Thunderbirds in scoring with a monumental performance. Graves scored 34 points which is tied for the sixth highest single-game total in program history. The last Thunderbird to score 34 points in a game was current assistant coach Hailey Mandelko on March 14, 2014 against Montana.
Graves also pulled down 10 rebounds, shot 11-for-17 from the floor, and shot 9-for-9 from the free throw line.
Darri Frandsen and Cherita Daugherty also reached double-digits in scoring as Frandsen had 15 and Daugherty had 11. Daylani Ballena had four assists on the day.
The first half was a tight contest between the two teams, with neither team leading by more than seven points at any point. The T-Birds put together a few runs and were able to tie the game twice in the first quarter, going into the second quarter down by three thanks to 11 points from Frandsen.
The T-Birds took their first lead of the game with 7:30 remaining in the half on a 6-0 run from Graves. BYU took the lead right back, but then so did Southern Utah. With 1:39 to go, Graves knocked in two free throws to put the Thunderbirds up seven. They would go into halftime with a 39-35 lead.
Just over a minute into the third quarter, Daughtery put up a layup to push the Thunderbirds' lead to eight. They were able to maintain it until about halfway through the quarter when BYU kicked off what would turn into a 28-3 scoring run that spanned almost ten minutes. SUU went from leading by eight to down 15 points with 6:19 to play in the game.
The Cougars were able to push their lead to 20 with 4:34 to go, but the Thunderbirds then put together a run of their own. They scored 14 points over the next three minutes, cutting the lead to six.
Southern Utah wouldn't be able to get closer than that as BYU went on to cruise to a 74-84 victory.
The Thunderbirds will host Dixie State on Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the America First Event Center.
Follow Us
Stay up to date during the 2020-21 Lady T-Bird Basketball season by following @SUUWBasketball on Twitter and Instagram and liking the Southern Utah Women's Basketball page on Facebook.
