BOISE, Idaho -- The Southern Utah men's basketball team won their fourth-straight First Round game in the Big Sky Conference Championship Tournament Wednesday afternoon, 75-69 over the No.10-seeded Idaho Vandals.

The Thunderbirds are now 17-15 on the season and will move on to face No. 2 Northern Colorado in tomorrow's quarterfinal matchups.

"It was a hard fought game," SUU head coach Todd Simon said. "You've got to tip your hat to Idaho. They were very prepared and did a great job with their game plan. They play extremely hard and Trevon Allen is such a good basketball player, and it was quite a performance by him. But I'm proud of our guys. We just kept answering the bell, didn't get frustrated and down the stretch we made some big plays, got some big stops and got the rebounds that we needed." 

Dre Marin was the leading scorer for the T-Birds with 19 points on four threes and 5-for-10 shooting from the field. John Knight III had 16 points while Cameron Oluyitan had 12 and Andrea Adams had 11. Adams was the leading rebounder with seven while Knight III had six.

The Thunderbirds shot 49.1 percent from the field and were 7-for-17 from three-point range.

Knight III opened the scoring for the Thunderbirds with a quick steal and a dunk less than a minute into the game. This opened a 8-2 scoring run for the T-Birds as they quickly jumped out to a six-point lead.

With the Thunderbirds leading by seven, the Vandals scored four-straight points to cut the lead to just three with 13:52 to go. The teams traded buckets for the next couple of minutes, with neither leading by more than five points.

The Vandals were the first to get a leg up and made it 17-16 with another four-point run, but Maizen Fausett stemmed the bleeding with a huge slam. That started a 10-4 run for Southern Utah in which Fausett scored seven of the 10 points. The Thunderbirds would go into the fourth media timeout of the half with a 27-20 lead.

The Vandals answered back with a huge run of their own and were able to tie the game at 27-27 with 2:25 to play in the first half. Two made free throws from Butler would give the Thunderbirds a 29-27 as they headed into the halftime break.

Both Fausett and Marin had seven points and Adams had four rebounds at the half.

Idaho took their first lead of the game early in the second half, outscoring the Thunderbirds 6-3 in the first two and a half minutes to take a 33-32 lead. The lead changed hands three more times in the next minute of play before the T-Birds used a 6-0 run to jump out to a 40-35 lead.

Much like the first half, the teams proceeded to trade buckets with every T-Bird that was on the floor getting in on the action. Southern Utah was able to keep Idaho at arm's length until Oluyitan hit back-to-back buckets to put them up by nine points with 10:12 to play.

The Vandals refused to give in however, as they chipped away at the lead until they were back within two at the 8:26 mark. They were able to tie the game at 61-61 with 6:08 to play.

The score tied four more times after that, with each team having an answer for the other. With 2:17 to play, the T-Birds were able to rattle off four-straight points and go up 73-69. Marin hit the final two free throws to seal the 75-69 victory.

Follow the Thunderbirds all season @SUUBasketball on Twitter and Instagram and by liking the Southern Utah Basketball page on Facebook. 

Read all about the Thunderbirds on www.suutbirds.com.