CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Southern Utah University men's basketball team will visit Portland State University Thursday night with hopes of rebounding from a recent loss to Weber State University.
GAME INFO
Southern Utah at Portland State
Date: January 27, 2022
Tip-Off: 8:00 p.m. MT
Location: Portland, Oregon
Venue: Viking Pavilion
TV: ESPN+
Watch | Live Stats | Southern Utah Notes | Portland State Notes
NOTES
-Southern Utah and Portland State met earlier this season in Cedar City with SUU claiming an 86-76 victory. Maizen Fausett led the way for the Thunderbirds with a double-double in the form of 21 points and 10 rebounds.
-SUU is 6-4 against Portland State under head coach Todd Simon after the win earlier in the season.
-John Knight III, Maizen Fausett and Harrison Butler are all rapidly approaching the 1,000-point mark for their careers. Knight needs just 20 points while Fausett and Butler need 58 and 80, respectively.
ABOUT PORTLAND STATE (4-12, 2-6)
-The loss to Southern Utah started a four-game slide for the Vikings. They have dropped contests against Montana, Montana State and Idaho since their visit to Cedar City.
-James Jean-Marie is Portland State's leading scorer at 12.93 points per game.
-As a team, PSU ranks ninth in the Big Sky Conference in scoring offense, but third overall in scoring defense.
LAST TIME OUT
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.
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.
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