CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Thunderbird men's basketball team suffered a home loss to the Northern Colorado Bears on Thursday evening, falling 68-60 inside the America First Event Center.
"Credit to them, they played a good game and made a lot of clutch shots," SUU head coach Todd Simon said following the contest. "Hitting 10 threes was a big difference in the game for them. They really shared the ball and put the ball in the hole, so you don't get much margin for error playing a team like this."
With the loss the T-Birds are now 13-9 on the season, and 6-5 in Big Sky Conference play.
Southern Utah struggled to get going in the opening half, and only shot 31 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes. Northern Colorado took advantage, shooting 44 percent from the field and outscored the T-Birds 28-21 in the first frame.
The second half much much more competitive, and higher scoring as well, but the Bears were still able to outscore the Thunderbirds 40-39.
Southern Utah was able to cut the Bear lead down to as low as four with 32 seconds to play, but UNC made their free throws and were able to get a transition bucket to put the T-Birds away late.
Northern Colorado left Cedar City with a wire-to-wire victory, as they never trailed.
John Knight III led the Thunderbirds with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Andre Adams also had a very solid night for the T-Birds, scoring 14 points and pulling down nine rebounds.
The Bears had five players scored in double-digits, led by Kai Edwards with 17 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Bodie Hume finished with 15 points, hitting four shots from behind the three-point line.
Northern Colorado finished the game with 10 triples.
Southern Utah's bench outscored Northern Colorado's 40-26.
The Thunderbirds will play at home again on Saturday, as they square off against the Portland State Vikings for the second time this season.
SUU knocked off PSU in Portland 83-81 back in December.
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