CEDAR CITY, Utah – Despite five players scoring in double figures, the Southern Utah University men's basketball team could not overcome Northern Colorado's hot shooting as the Bears defeated the Thunderbirds by a score of 91-81 Saturday night at the America First Event Center.

With the loss, Southern Utah dropped to 9-5 overall for the year and 3-1 in Big Sky competition. The Thunderbirds also saw their 20-game home court winning streak snapped. Northern Colorado improved to 8-7 overall and remained perfect in league play.

"It was a tough one tonight," said SUU head coach Todd Simon. "You have to give credit to Northern Colorado. They hit 17 threes and really made us pay for the mistakes we made. We really dug ourselves in a hole after that first four or five minutes, we were really playing catch up. I thought that was the difference in the game. It impacted our strategy a little bit, and we had to take a few more gambles, which they made us pay for. We'll go back to the drawing board, and we'll be better. We'll get Dre (Marin) back and move on to next week."

Maizen Fausett led a balanced scoring effort for the T-Birds with a team-high 21 points for the night. John Knight III and Aanen Moody eached contributed 14 while Tevian Jones and Harrison Butler added 13 points apiece. Jones was SUU's top rebounder on the night with eight and Fausett pulled down seven. Knight ran the offense well for Southern Utah and dished out nine assists, leaving him one shy of a double-double.

As a team, the Thunderbirds struggled to keep Northern Colorado away from the three-point line as the Bears connected from deep 17 times. Southern Utah kept up the pace in shooting percentage, hitting 44.4 percent of its shots to a 45.6 percent clip for UNC, but struggled from the free-throw line, making only 14 of 25 attempts. The Thunderbirds also dug themselves into an early hole as Northern Colorado took an early 13-3 lead and never turned back.

Southern Utah made its runs throughout the game, but could not quite trim the deficit enough to get back in. UNC led by as many as 18 points in the second half and appeared to be running away, but a 9-0 run from SUU gave the T-Birds life. Unfortunately, as they did all night, the Bears connected on a three to restore their double-digit lead. The Thunderbirds made one last run and trimmed UNC's lead to five, but more 3-pointers from the Bears gave them enough breathing room to ice the game and secure the win.

Southern Utah will hit the floor again Thursday when it welcomes Portland State to Cedar City on January 6. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. MT and the game can be watched on ESPN+.

For all the latest on Southern Utah men's basketball, follow @SUUBasketball on Twitter and Instagram, and like the Southern Utah Basketball Facebook page.