BOISE, Idaho -- The No. 1 seeded Southern Utah Thunderbird men's basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the Big Sky Conference Championship Tournament on Thursday afternoon, as they knocked off the No. 8 seeded Northern Colorado Bears, 91-83. 

The 2020-21 Thunderbirds also broke their own Division I record on Saturday, winning their 10th contest in a row. The previous winning streak record was set earlier this season at nine. Their last loss came on January 21 against Weber State in Ogden.  

"It was a fun game," SUU head coach Todd Simon said following the contest. "Obviously the Big Sky Conference Championship Tournament is always a lot of fun, and getting this first game out of the way is big. You just don't know what to expect in the first game, there's always a little bit of jitters, anxiousness or excited energy, so to get it out of the way and get our focus back is big. I thought our guys did a great job executing the game plan, getting to the hole and our press was good, that's something we've been working on."  

The Thunderbirds are now 20-3 on the year. 

Southern Utah has now qualified for its third-straight semifinal, not including the tournament cancelled due to COVID-19. It's also SUU's fifth-straight year with a postseason win, and the Thunderbirds are 7-3 in the Big Sky Conference Tournament under head coach Todd Simon.  

Northern Colorado jumped out to an early lead, taking a 20-11 advantage, but the Thunderbirds started chipping away and used a 6-0 run to close the gap and climb back into the contest. UNC led the game for the first 12 minutes.  

Down the stretch of the first half the Thunderbirds used a massive 15-0 run to flip a 30-26 UNC lead into a 41-30 advantage. 

Southern Utah would ride that wave into the break, leading the Bears 46-34 after 20 minutes. 

John Knight III had a massive first half, scoring 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. 

The T-Birds scored 15 points off Northern Colorado's 12 turnovers in the first half. 

In the second half, the Bears did a good job hanging around. Despite the Thunderbirds only hitting 1-of-11 field goals to close out the game, they stepped up big defensively to hold the Bears to 1-of-10 shooting over the same span of time to close out the victory. 

For the third game in a row John Knight III set a career-high for Southern Utah, dropping in 34 points on 13-of-21 shooting and 8-of-8 shooting from the free throw line. This ties him for sixth in Big Sky Tournament history in terms of highest scoring individual game. 

Knight III has combined for 86 points in the last three contests, as he scored 26 in both games against Portland State last weekend. 

"We want to play 40 minutes," Knight III said in reference to the amount of time he spent on the court on Thursday. "We don't want to come out. This is big for us, we're seniors and it means a lot. You push yourself in the offseason to be prepared for times like this, because you know you'll need to play 40 minutes. We were well prepared for it."   

Dre Marin finished with 15 points, also shooting 8-of-8 from the free throw line. Despite fouling out, Tevian Jones scored 13 points for the Thunderbirds. He also led SUU's rebounding effort with eight.  

Marquis Moore had a strong outing for the Thunderbirds, scoring 10 points and pulling down six rebounds. 

As a unit the Thunderbirds forced the Bears into 18 turnovers, and turned those into points, scoring 22 off those TO's. 

SUU outscored the Bears 42-30 in the paint, and held a 17-8 advantage in bench points. 

Southern Utah awaits the winner of the contest between Montana State and Idaho State. 

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