EDINBURG, Texas – After trailing at halftime by a score of 36-33, the Southern Utah University women's basketball team went on to outscore UTRGV 47-31 in the second half on the way to earning an 80-67 victory Saturday afternoon at UTRGV Fieldhouse.
The victory was Southern Utah's second straight and improved its record to 2-4 overall on the season. The Vaqueros dropped to 1-4 on the year with the loss.
"I'm really proud of our performance today," said SUU head coach Tracy Sanders. "It was a true team win on both ends of the court. We put each other in great positions to score with 24 assists on 30 shots. UTRGV made some runs, but I was really impressed with our ability to slow those runs and shift momentum."
Lizzy Williamson continued her impressive run of performances over the last four games with another double-double. The Australian led the team in both points and rebounds with 20 and 12, respectively. Samantha Johnston and Darri Dotson each joined Williamson in double-figure scoring with 12 and 11 apiece. Dotson finished with eight rebounds, just two shy of her own double-double. Daylani Ballena efficiently ran the offense for the Thunderbirds on the day by scoring nine points and dishing out six assists.
After a fairly even first half, the T-Birds came out of the halftime break firing on all cylinders. The third quarter opened with SUU ripping off an 8-0 run, led by two baskets from Cherita Daugherty. Moments later, Southern Utah broke the game open with a 13-0 run to take an 11-point lead. Ballena dropped in a layup before Johnston connected from 3-point range three times in a row. Alexa Lord then made a driving layup of her own to cap the run.
The Vaqueros would not go down without a fight as they worked to trim the lead down to just two points with six minutes to go in the game. SUU was able to weather the storm, though, and closed the game on a 10-2 run to secure the victory.
Southern Utah will now prepare to open Big Sky Conference play when it welcomes Eastern Washington to Cedar City on Thursday, December 2. Tip-off is slated for 6:30 p.m. MT and the game can be viewed on ESPN+ and listened to on 91.1 FM in Cedar City.
For all the latest on Southern Utah women's basketball, follow @SUUWBasketball on Twitter and Instagram, and like the Southern Utah Women's Basketball Facebook page.
