CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Thunderbird men's basketball team secured yet another bounce back victory on Saturday, as they knocked off the Portland State Vikings 85-57.
This is the third-straight instance at home where the Thunderbirds have lost on a Thursday, but bounced back with a Saturday victory.
The T-Birds are now 14-9 on the season, with a 7-5 record in the Big Sky Conference.
"It was a good bounce back win," SUU head coach Todd Simon. "This group has shown all kinds of character and ability to bounce back from adversity and today we were really focused on defense, which has been our calling card, and I think we put together a pretty good 40 minutes of it."
The victory was also the 50th of Simon's career as head coach of Southern Utah.
Neither team started fast, as the T-Birds led 2-0 at the first media timeout. Things picked up before the second one was called, and SUU had built a 11-6 advantage.
From that point on the Thunderbirds were able to turn it on, and built up their lead to as many as 16. They took a 30-18 advantage into the halftime break.
Early in the second half the Vikings cut the Thunderbird lead down to five, but that didn't last long as the T-Birds built their lead up to as many as 24 with just over 10 minutes to play.
SUU held the lead throughout the rest of the contest, and ended up with a 85-57 victory.
The Thunderbirds shot 60 percent in the second half, hitting 18-of-30 from the field. They also shot 62 percent from behind the three-point line, hitting 8-of-13. The outscored PSU 55-37 in the final 20 minutes.
In the second half alone, Cameron Oluyitan scored 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting and 4-of-5 shooting from the free throw line.
Oluyitan finished with 24 points in 34 minutes.
Andre Adams finished the contest with 12 points and nine rebounds. Maizen Fausett pulled down a team-high 12 boards.
John Knight III and Dre Marin both finished the game with 11 points in 31 minutes.
The T-Birds outscored the Vikings 36-24 in the paint.
Southern Utah will head back out on the road next weekend, as they'll travel to Sacramento State (Thursday, February 13) and Northern Arizona (Saturday, February 15).
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Plays of the Game
