CEDAR CITY, UTAH -- The SUU Men's Basketball team had a week long break after defeating Abilene Christian in Abilene last Saturday, but stumbled at home to the Texans of Tarleton State, losing a hard-fought defensive battle, 59-62.

Head Coach Rob Jeter said

Top T-Birds

• Elijah Duval continued scoring the ball very well for the Thunderbirds. Pouring in 18 points to go along with seven assists, four rebounds, and two steals.
• Jaiden Feroah nearly notched another double-double, scoring 15 points on 7-12 from the floor. He also grabbed nine rebounds, chipped in two helpers, a block, and a steal.
• Tanner Hayhurst added three more triples to his season tally. Scoring 11 points on 3-5 from deep, adding nine rebounds, and two steals.

HIGHLIGHTS

Game Recap

The T-Birds jumped out to a quick 13-6 lead after a Hayhurst triple, but the Texans answered with a three-ball of their own that sparked a 10-0 run, and suddenly the game had flipped, and SUU trailed by three.

The Texans had a one-possession lead for a while, but with under four minutes to play, SUU put together an 8-0 run that consisted of made triples from Duval and Dylan Jones that gave Southern Utah a six-point edge.

TSU's Cam McDowell closed on a personal 5-0 run that made the T-Birds lead just one heading into the halftime break.

The second half started slow for the Thunderbirds, with the Texans scoring the first six points before Duval ripped the net on another deep ball. At the under-16 media timeout, the T-birds trailed by one with two free throws coming up out of the timeout. Hayhurst made a pair, and SUU took the lead back.

The two teams exchanged the lead a few times before Tarleton State put together a run that led to their biggest lead of the game. SUU didn't score a bucket for nearly five minutes, and the Texans went on a 7-0 run. With 4:40 remaining, SUU trailed 56-49.

Back-to-back buckets from Feroah cut the Texans' lead to three with 3:42 remaining. After another SUU turnover, the Texans had pushed the lead back to six points with 2:20 left.

An extremely chaotic 1:30 of game time that saw multiple missed shots and offensive rebounds ultimately led to a Jaiden Feroah three-pointer that cut the deficit to three points with 37 seconds remaining.

SUU stole the inbounds pass and was able to create three quality looks from downtown that would've tied the ball game, but none of them were able to find the bottom of the basket, and eventually, TSU came up with a rebound, and the game closed with the Texans escaping.

Statistical Recap

The Thunderbirds created quality looks all night long, but just couldn't get them to drop. SUU was 36% from the floor and 35% from deep.

The T-Birds won the rebounding battle 39-34, including 15-9 on the offensive glass.

Southern Utah was able to create 16 turnovers, but only scored 12 points off the turnovers. Meanwhile, TSU turned the T-Birds over 19 times and scored 19 points off them.

SUU once again did a good job sharing the ball, recording 14 assists on 22 made field goals, compared to just six assists for the Texans.

Tarleton State was aided by 24 points off the bench, while SUU scored just eight.

Up Next

SUU will be back in action inside the America First Event Center next Thursday, February 12, when the top-ranked Lancers of California Baptist come to town. The game will tipoff at 6:30 p.m.

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