CEDAR CITY, Utah – Down 20 just minutes into the second half, the Southern Utah University men's basketball continued chipping away and trimmed Weber State's lead to just five points, but the Thunderbirds could not complete the comeback as the Wildcats pulled away to defeat SUU, 92-84, Monday night at the America First Event Center.

The loss dropped the Thunderbirds to 11-6 on the season with a 5-2 mark in Big Sky play. Weber State improved to 14-5 for the year, and 7-1 in the conference.

"What a fun college basketball environment," said SUU head coach Todd Simon. "I thought the fans were outstanding and the crowd was great. It got really loud in there. I was proud of our guys. We were a little off, and we didn't quite have it for stretches tonight. But, they kept battling to the very end, which I was proud of."

Despite the loss, the Thunderbirds received several solid individual performances, led by Harrison Butler who scored a team-high 18 points off the bench. John Knight III and Maizen Fausett added 17 apiece while Dre Marin and Tevian Jones each dropped in 14. Fausett also contributed seven rebounds for the T-Birds, and Knight led the team in assists with three.

The Thunderbirds managed to outrebound the Wildcats in the losing effort with 32 to their 29. It was the play of Seiku Sisoho Jawara and Koby McEwen that sunk SUU, though, as the duo combined to score 46 points, including eight 3-pointers. As a team, Weber State enjoyed a 13-7 advantage in 3-point shots.

Southern Utah appeared to be in good shape early as the Thunderbirds raced out to a seven-point lead. The T-Birds enjoyed an advantage for most of the first half, but Weber State gradually eliminated that lead and went up by nine at halftime after SUU got itself into foul trouble.

The momentum carried over to the second half for the Wildcats as they found themselves up 20 less than four minutes after halftime. SUU finally found some rhythm, and turned up the defensive intensity, to make it a single-digit game again. Jones then got to the free-throw line and made four straight after a technical foul by WSU, but the T-Birds came up empty on their ensuing possessions and the Wildcats did enough to put the game away.

SUU will hit the road for its next game when they take on Portland State on Thursday, January 27. Tip-off is at 8:00 p.m. MT, and the game can be seen on ESPN+.

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