FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- The Southern Utah University Thunderbird men's basketball team won their seventh game in a row on Friday evening inside Rolle Activity Center, as they completed their regular season sweep of the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks with a 92-62 victory over their Big Sky and regional rival.
The victory also means the T-Birds went undefeated in the month of February.
With the win, the Thunderbirds are 17-3 on the season and 10-2 in Big Sky Conference play.
"We didn't feel like we didn't play very good on Wednesday, and we wanted to come back and have a better representation of our program and where we're at right now," SUU head coach Todd Simon said. "Luckily guys are buying in on the defensive end and that's translating to points on the offensive end."
Southern Utah started hot out of the gate, sprinting to an 11-2 lead in the first two-and-a-half minutes.
SUU stayed hot for the first nine minutes, and built up their advantage to as many as 14.
Despite some strong pushes by Northern Arizona, the Thunderbirds didn't relinquish control of the lead at all in the opening half.
The T-Birds hit their final three shots of the half, and led by 10 at the break.
Both Dre Marin and Maizen Fausett were saddled with two fouls in the opening 20 minutes. Despite that, Fausett led the scoring effort for SUU in the first half with 10 points.
The second half belonged solely to Southern Utah. In just over three minutes the Thunderbirds built their lead up to 20, and never looked back. Even though the Lumberjacks were able to cut the lead back down to 11, the T-Birds quickly responded with a 7-0 run to kill any momentum.
SUU's lead continued to build as the second half wore on, and eventually it resulted in a 30 point lead and victory for the Thunderbirds.
Marin, the Arizona native, finished the game as the leading scorer for Southern Utah with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting. He was just one point shy of matching his career high. Fausett wasn't too far behind, finishing with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting. The junior from Saratoga Springs also led the team in rebounds with seven.
Tevian Jones had another big outing for the Thunderbirds, finishing with 17 points.
John Knight III had 15 points for SUU, finishing as the fourth T-Bird to score in double figures.
SUU shot 56 percent from the field in the contest, and hit 11 triples.
The Thunderbirds outrebounded the Lumberjacks by 15, with a 37-22 advantage. SUU also took advantage of NAU's 14 turnovers, scoring 26 points off of them. Along with those numbers, they outscored NAU 32-14 in the paint and finished with 20 points off the bench.
The last time Southern Utah lost was on the road against Weber State on January 23.
"We've improved defensively by so much, and we've got better poise," Simon said. "We've just got to keep it going one game at a time."
Next up for the Thunderbirds will be a two game road series against the Portland State Vikings.
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