CEDAR CITY, Utah – After playing nothing but road games since December 9, the Southern Utah University women's basketball team finally returns home to the America First Event Center Thursday night to take on the Portland State Vikings.
GAME INFO
Southern Utah vs Portland State
Date: January 27, 2022
Tip-Off: 6:30 p.m. MT
Location: Cedar City, Utah
Venue: America First Event Center
TV: ESPN+
Watch | Live Stats | Tickets | Southern Utah Notes
NOTES
-Southern Utah enters Thursday night's game having won six of its last seven contests.
-Samantha Johnston and Daylani Ballena both set career highs in scoring in SUU's overtime win over Weber State with 20 and 22, respectively. Johnston knocked down a 3-pointer with four seconds on the clock to force overtime.
-SUU and PSU have met six times while Tracy Sanders has been head coach of the Thunderbirds. The teams are both 3-3 against each other during that time.
-The T-Birds and Vikings last met in March of 2021 when Portland State narrowly defeated SUU, 60-57.
-Southern Utah has the top scoring offense in the Big Sky at 74.4 points per game.
ABOUT PORTLAND STATE (5-9, 0-6 Big Sky)
-Portland State comes into Thursday's game looking for its first conference win of the season. The Vikings are 5-9 overall, and have lost four straight.
-Esmeralda Morales leads the Vikings in scoring with 12.8 points per game. Savannah Dhaliwal and Lada Lewis also average double figures with 10.7 and 10.4, respectively.
-Chelsey Gregg is in her first season as head coach of Portland State. She spent the previous six seasons on staff as both an assistant coach and associate head coach.
LAST TIME OUT
SUU women's basketball took down the Weber State Wildcats Monday night by the score 85-75. Daylani Ballena led the Thunderbirds with 22 points in the teams' last road matchup with Weber as Big Sky rivals.
Southern Utah lost the opening tip-off leading to a Wildcats 5-0 opening run before Sam Johnston started the scoring with a three pointer followed by a layup from Darri Dotson to tie things up. Weber added 13 unanswered points off of two threes from Alom Solovi. The T-Birds scored 9 points to end the first quarter down 5 with a 14-19 score.
The first two minutes of the second quarter started with defense on both ends of the quarter including blocks from both Dotson and Johnston recording blocks. Two Johnston three pointers kickstarted the scoring in the quarter before the action got tight with Weber taking a 23-22 lead through 5:03. SUU kept it close but Weber's lead held until halftime with a 35-32 score.
The Thunderbirds scored nine to take their first lead of the second half with just under six minutes left of the quarter and held on despite the Wildcats keeping neck and neck. Dayla Ballena recorded 10 points in the period to give SUU a 55-52 lead heading into the final quarter of regulation.
It was a three point ball game as the clock ticked past 10 seconds left in the game as Head Coach Tracy Sanders called a timeout after a missed Weber free throw. Johnston hit a three pointer for her 18th point of the game to tie the game with 4.6 seconds left to play. Dotson poked the ball out of the Wildcats hands to send the game to overtime.
Dotson scored the first bucket of overtime off the assist from Ballena to take the lead. Weber quickly found their way to the free throw line to erase the lead before putting Cherita Daughtrey at the free throw line to take one of two. The two teams traded blows until a Daughtrey steal into a Ballena bucket gave SUU some breathing room. Ballena added two from the line before Weber's Jadyn Matthews found herself with two free throws draining one of them with 32 seconds left on the clock.
The Thunderbirds ended the game with free throws stretching their lead to take the ballgame 85-75.
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