BOISE, Idaho -- The Southern Utah Thunderbird men's basketball team saw their Big Sky Conference Championship Tournament run come to an end on Friday evening, as they fell to the Montana State Bobcats in overtime 80-77.
"I'm just proud of these guys," SUU head coach, and Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year Todd Simon said following the contest. "You always want to end your season on a win, and not very many teams get to, so it's tough. It was like there was a cap on the rim there for a little stretch, and that's the game. That's life, that's how it goes, but it doesn't change the accomplishments these guys had."
The Thunderbirds exit the Big Sky Tournament with a 20-4 overall record, which would leave them with the best winning percentage in the history of the program.
Southern Utah senior Dre Marin broke the school record on Friday night for games played, appearing in his 120th contest as a Thunderbird.
"They played so hard, they left everything they had on the floor," Simon added.
The contest featured 10 lead changes, nine ties and the Thunderbirds led for over 36 minutes, but MSU led when it mattered most.
The Thunderbirds jumped out to a 12-6 lead, but a quick 8-0 run by the Bobcats flipped the score in their favor 14-12. However, the Thunderbirds responded immediately with a 7-0 run of their own to take the lead back.
After MSU cut the T-Bird lead down to two with 2:15 left in the opening frame, the Thunderbirds closed the half on an 8-0 spurt to take a 42-32 advantage into the halftime break.
Montana State controlled the opening eight minutes of the second half, as they outscored the Thunderbirds 18-11 to cut SUU's lead to 53-50 with 11:51 to play.
The Bobcats continued to claw back, and trimmed that lead all the way down to just one with 7:18 on the clock, and eventually took the lead at 67-63 on the back of a 8-0 run.
Trailing by two, first team all-conference member Tevian Jones stole an inbounds pass from MSU, converted on a layup and was foul to put the T-Birds up 68-67.
After a John Knight III free throw, the T-Birds led by two, but the Bobcats hit a two-point field goal at the buzzer to force overtime.
The overtime period was played incredibly close, but the Bobcats held an 11-8 advantage over the final five minutes to walk away with a victory.
Second team all-conference player Maizen Fausett led the scoring effort for Southern Utah, dropping 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting and 4-of-5 shooting from behind the three-point line.
Jones finished with 15 points, and led SUU's rebounding effort with 10 boards.
SUU shot 41 percent from the field, and hit 11-of-25 from behind the three-point line.
The Bobcats held a 43-38 advantage in rebounding.
While this may not be the final game for the Thunderbirds, this year will go down as one of the greatest in the history of the program. Coming into the contest they were riding the longest winning streak in program history at 10 games. They placed a record-high four players on the Big Sky All-Conference Teams.
They won Men's Basketball Player of the Week on four different occasions during the year. Offensively, the Thunderbirds were a top-10 ranked team in the country at the end of the season in terms of scoring average. They also reached the No.8 spot in the Mid Major Madness Top 25.
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