Box Score ABILENE, Texas. Senior guard Tevian Jones jumpstarted the Southern Utah men's basketball team to a gripping, 74-72, road victory against Abilene Christian with a transcendent second-half performance. With the Thunderbirds trailing by five at the half, Jones sparked SUU with 22 points in the second stanza to help improve Southern Utah's record to 11-6 and 3-1 in Western Athletic Conference play. ACU, meanwhile, fell to 9-7 and 1-2 in the conference.
Career-Scoring Charts
Jones unleashed a 28-point performance to push his overall career scoring tally to 1,130 at SUU. He moved into the 1,200-point club overall including his time at Illinois. Overall, Jones has now scored 1,228 points as a collegiate player.
Senior forward Maizen Fausett closed to within nine points (1,291) of the 1,300-point club with 11 points tonight, while sophomore guard Drake Allen turned in a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Meanwhile, senior guard Harrison Butler inched his way up the career-scoring charts with six points as he moved to within two points of Jackson Stevenett's 1,273 points from 2010-13.
Points
1,710; Davor Marcelic (1989-1992)
1,568; Jeff Monaco (1997-2001)
1,434; Dre Marin (2017-2022)
1,300; James McGee (2014-2018)
1,297; Richard Barton (1989-1993)
1,291; Maizen Fausett (ACTIVE)
1,273; Jackson Stevenett (2010-2013)
1,271; Harrison Butler (ACTIVE)
1,223; John Knight III (2019-2022)
1,205; Davis Baker (2007-2010)
1,130; Tevian Jones (ACTIVE)
T-Bird Tidbits
- Southern Utah held ACU to just 40 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent from beyond the arc.
- SUU shot 56 percent from the field with 36 percent from three-point range.
- The T-Birds dominated the glass, 41-24.
- The exciting contest featured 10 ties and six lead changes.
First Half
The Thunderbirds jumped out to an early 4-0 lead with 18:26 on the clock as Harrison Butler and Tevian Jones connected with layups. Following an ACU triple, Jason Spurgin flushed a dunk to put the 'Birds up 6-3 at the 17:13 mark.
Abilene Christian, however, turned in a four-point run of its own to take its first lead of the game, 7-6, with 15:03 heading into the initial media timeout. ACU followed with another three-pointer to take a 10-6 lead with 14:10 to go as part of a 7-0 burst.
Maizen Fausett ended the run with a layup to cut the gap to 10-8 with 13:43 to go. Jones then drilled a jumper to knot the contest up at 10-10 with 13:08 on the clock.
ACU countered by canning another three-pointer to grab a 13-10 advantage before Drake Allen slithered his way to a layup to cut the gap to 13-12 with 12:17 to go. ACU, however, turned up the heat with a dunk to gain a 15-12 lead with 11:41 on the clock to head into another media timeout.
Parsa Fallah turned in textbook footwork down low with a layup at 10:02 to move the 'Birds to within 15-14. A pair of free throws put ACU back up by three, 17-14, at the 8:14 mark then converted a jumper to put ACU up 19-14 with 6:35 to go. ACU continued a 6-0 run at 6:07 with another layup to push its lead to 21-14.
Cameron Healy broke a scoring drought for the Thunderbirds with a layup of his own to chip away at ACU's advantage, 21-16, with 5:47 on the clock. ACU followed with another layup as well to improve its lead to 23-16 before Martel Williams sank a pair of free throws with 5:21 on the clock as SUU moved the score back to 23-18.
ACU free throws stretched its lead back to 25-18 with 4:22 to go. Abilene Christian then drained a three coming out of the media timeout to grab a 10-point lead, 28-18, with 3:33 to go.
Butler backed down a defender in the paint to chop the ACU lead to 28-20 with 2:37 to go before Allen sank a pair of shots from the charity stripe to move the ACU lead to 28-22 with 2:19 on the clock. Jones continued a much-needed 6-0 run with a thunderous dunk at 1:46 to move to within four points, 28-24. Williams pushed the SUU run to 7-0 with a free throw at the 34-second mark with ACU up by just three, 28-25.
A pair of free throws put ACU up 30-25 going into halftime.
Second Half
Tevian Jones started the second half right for the T-Birds, drilling a contested three-pointer, to move SUU to within 30-28 with 19:31 on the clock. ACU responded with a jumper followed by a three-pointer of its own to grab a 35-28 lead at the 17:42 mark.
Jason Spurgin flushed a pair of free throws with 16:24 on the clock to push SUU back to a 35-30 deficit. Jones pushed the SUU run to 5-0 with a trifecta to cut the ACU lead to 35-33 with 15:34 to go.
ACU responded with a jumper to extend its lead to 37-33 before Martel Williams retaliated with a layup to cut the deficit back to two points, 37-35, with 14:33 to go. SUU finally erased ACU's lead with a jumper from Jones to tie the contest at 37-37 at 14:11. Williams converted a layup as well to put SUU up 39-37 with 13:45 to go as part of a 6-0 run from the 'Birds.
Following another media timeout, ACU tied the contest at 39-39 with 13:32 to go. Maizen Fausett put back a second-chance layup with 12:10 on the clock to move up 41-39 before ACU responded with a layup of its own for another tie, 41-41, with 12:02 to go.
Harrison Butler went 1-2 from the line to put the 'Birds up, 42-41, with 11:56 to go. Jones continued his second-half surge with a pair of shots from the charity stripe to put the T-Birds up, 44-41, with 11:30 on the clock.
ACU made up the difference at the line with a trio of free throws to tie the game up at 44-44 with 11:05 to play.
Drake Allen pushed SUU's lead back up to two, 46-44, with a layup at 10:53. An ACU layup knotted the contest again, 46-46, with 10:07 on the clock. Jones, however, had other plans with yet another trifecta to put SUU up 49-46 at 9:49. Allen flushed another layup to put SUU up 51-46 with 9:30 to go.
ACU converted an old-fashioned three-point play at 8:48 to chop the SUU lead to 51-49. Jones followed with a technical foul free throw thanks to an ACU flop, putting the 'Birds up, 52-49, with 8:33 to go.
Williams extended SUU's lead to 54-49 with 8:23 to go thanks to a layup before ACU responded with another old-fashioned three-point play to move to within 54-52 at 8:06 on the clock heading into another media timeout.
ACU tied the game up at 54-54 with 7:11 coming out of the timeout before retaking the lead for the first time since the 14:33 mark to lead 56-54 as part of a 7-0 ACU burst.
Spurgin ended the ACU run with some aggression in the paint, drawing a foul and converting a free throw to push the 'Birds back to within one, 56-55, with 6:05 to go. ACU stretched its lead to 58-55 at the 5:27 mark before Allen drained a pair of free throws at 5:12 to close to within 58-57.
Butler went 1-2 from the line with 4:51 to knot the game up at 58-58 before Abilene Christian moved back up, 60-58, with 4:23 on the clock.
Jones induced a foul on a three-pointer and followed by converting on all three free throws to put SUU up, 61-60, at the 4:08 mark. ACU went back up by a point, 62-61, thanks to a pair of free throws coming out of the media timeout with 3:40 to go.
Fausett closed out an old-fashioned three-point play of his own as the 'Birds went up 64-62 with 2:53 to go. Spurgin then went 1-2 at the line to claim a 65-62 lead with 2:17 on the clock.
ACU countered with a jumper of its own at the 2:02 mark to cut the gap to 65-64. Fausett put the 'Birds back up by three, 67-64, with a second-chance tap at 1:30 on the clock.
Following a 1-2 effort at the line from ACU to move to within 67-65 at 1:25, Jones canned a clutch fadeaway trey with 56 seconds on the clock to put Southern Utah up, 70-65. ACU responded with a layup to get back within 70-67 with 43 seconds to go.
After an ACU timeout, Jones drilled a jumper to put the T-Birds up by five, 72-57, with 16 seconds on the clock. ACU, however, drew an And 1 to cut SUU's lead to 72-70 with 10 seconds to go.
Fausett went 1-2 at the line for SUU to go up, 73-70. ACU sank a pair of free throws with six seconds to go as SUU led by just 73-72. With just five seconds on the clock, Fausett went 1-2 at the line to put the 'Birds up, 74-72. The Thunderbirds then forced an ACU turnover to capture the victory.
Notable Plays
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Southern Utah returns home to welcome Sam Houston to the America First Event Center on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. MT.
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