CEDAR CITY, Utah -- After suffering a loss to Weber State on Thursday night, the Thunderbird men's basketball team bounced back in a big way on Saturday afternoon by knocking off the Wildcats 77-72.
With the victory the Thunderbirds move to 11-3 on the season, and 6-2 in Big Sky Conference play.
"I'm just really proud of this team, they're a resilient bunch," SUU head coach Todd Simon said following the contest. "We just left so many things on the table on Thursday … and they were good shots, so we were just able to put that away and turn the page. We did better to not let our offense affect our defense, and today was a better representation of who we are defensively and who we need to be for the rest of league play."
The game went right down to the wire, and with roughly 50 seconds on the clock Damani McEntire forced a steal and was able to convert it into a layup to put SUU up 73-72.
"I didn't play much, but the whole time I was studying everything he does," McEntire said about anticipating the play. "I knew he was going to turn his back on me, so I knew once he turned his back I could steal it and lay it up."
Southern Utah made the right plays with the remaining time to put the contest away.
The Thunderbirds led for 37 of the 40 minutes, which was a drastic change from Thursday evening's contest. The game stayed close, however, as SUU's largest lead was only built up to 10.
Maizen Fausett led the Thunderbirds in scoring on the evening, scoring 24 points in 26 minutes of action. Unfortunately for SUU, he fouled out late in the second half. His 24 points marked a new career-high.
Harrison Butler finished the game with 18 points, scoring 14 of them in the second half. Tevian Jones finished with 17 points, hitting four triples.
At the point guard position, Dre Marin led the team in rebounds with eight.
Isiah Brown had a massive game for the Wildcats, scoring 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting.
The game was fairly even across the board. SUU and WSU both finished the contest with 24 points in the paint. The game had fairly limited turnovers as well, as SUU had eight and WSU had three.
SUU's bench did outperform Weber State's, as they outscored them 25-15.
Southern Utah will head back out on the road next weekend for a pair of contests against the Idaho State Bengals in Pocatello.
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