CHENEY, Wash. - The Southern Utah men's basketball team took their first loss in almost two months Thursday night, falling to Eastern Washington 63-75 in Cheney. The loss broke an unprecedented nine-game winning streak for the Thunderbirds and moved them to 9-2 overall and 4-1 in Big Sky play.

Maizen Fausett was the leading scorer for the T-Birds with 14 points. He posted his first double-double of the season, pulling down 11 rebounds in the contest. Three other Thunderbirds hit the double-digit scoring mark as Tevian Jones put up 13 points, John Knight III scored 12, and Dre Marin scored 11. Both Knight III and Marin dished out four assists.

As a team, the Thunderbirds outrebounded the Eagles 43-40, but shot 34 percent from the floor compared to Eastern Washington's 40 percent.

The Eagles got up on the T-Birds early in this one, starting the game on a 9-2 run, but it wouldn't last long as the Thunderbirds answered with a run of their own. With 14:39 left in the half, Jones would knock down a three that tied the game at 10-10.

As the Eagles continued to score, so did the Thunderbirds. With 4:17 left in the opening half, Southern Utah found themselves down 21-31, but a three-pointer from Harrison Butler followed by two more from Jones closed the gap quickly. They went into halftime down 30-35.

The Thunderbirds continued to chip away in the second half, putting together a 9-5 run over the first five minutes and cutting Eastern Washington's lead down to just one. However, that would be as close as they would get for the rest of the game as the Eagles began to pull away. With 6:37 remaining EWU had built up a 10-point lead.

Knight III was able to cut that lead down to six by scoring the Thunderbirds' next six points, but the Eagles would put together a 7-0 run to reach their biggest lead of the night at 13 points. The Thunderbirds continued to chip away, but couldn't get a run of their own going, ultimately losing the game 63-75.

The Thunderbirds will have another shot at the Eagles on Saturday as the teams play a rematch in Cheney at 1:00 p.m. Mountain time.

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