CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Southern Utah University women's basketball team shot the lights out, including a 9-of-17 mark from 3-point range, on the way to defeating Idaho, 87-65, for the team's first win against the Vandals since 1996.
The victory moved the Thunderbirds to an even 4-4 on the year and 2-0 in Big Sky play. It was also SUU's fourth-straight win. Idaho dropped to 1-6 on the season in defeat and fell to 0-1 in conference competition.
"I'm proud of the way the girls played today," said Southern Utah head coach Tracy Sanders. "This was our first win against Idaho since 1996 and we snapped a 16-game losing streak to those guys, so it feels good to accomplish that. Our girls were resilient and fought off a run to get another big win. With this being our last year in the Big Sky, we had some boxes we wanted to check, so we're excited to get our first win over Idaho in a while."
The Thunderbirds were red hot in the first half as they connected on 8-of-12 3-point attempts on the way to taking a 50-35 lead into the locker room. Six of those threes came courtesy of Natalia Otkhmezuri and Samantha Johnston, who connected from distance three times apiece. That would account for all of Johnston's scoring on the night while Otkhmezuri would go on to add one more layup to her stat line.
Cherita Daugherty led the T-Birds with a game-high 26 points, which sets a new career high for the senior guard. Daugherty also followed up her 14-of-14 free throw performance from a game ago with an 11-of-12 mark against the Vandals. She also finished two rebounds shy of a double-double. Daylani Ballena also gave the Thunderbirds a big lift with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. Lizzy Williamson led both teams in rebounds with 14, and finished just two points shy of a double-double with eight.
Although Southern Utah held a large lead heading into the second half, Idaho would not go away, and made a run to cut SUU's lead to just three points heading into the final quarter. The Thunderbirds were able to respond and locked down Idaho on the defensive end, allowing just five points through the entire fourth quarter. A 7-0 run to open the fourth also gave the T-Birds enough breathing room to operate and build their lead.
After opening conference play with back-to-back wins over Eastern Washington and Idaho, SUU now returns to nonconference play beginning with a visit from Colorado on Tuesday, December 7. Tuesday's game against the Buffaloes will mark the return of former head coach JR Payne, who led the Thunderbirds to the Big Sky Championship in 2014. The game can be viewed on ESPN+ and heard on Thunder 91.1 FM.
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