CEDAR CITY — Southern Utah men’s basketball got back in the win column with a dominant 79-59 win over the Vaqueros of UT Rio Grand Valley Saturday night. The Thunderbirds improve to 9-13 overall and 4-6 in conference play.
Southern Utah men’s basketball performed a dominant 79-59 win over the Vaqueros of UT Rio Grand Valley in Cedar City, Utah, Feb. 3, 2024 | Photo courtesy SUU Athletics, St. George News
“I am really proud of our guys,” Thunderbird head coach Rob Jeter said. “We have dealt with a lot of adversity this season, and we always bounce back. So I am proud of these guys and glad that they won in front of this home crowd.”
SUU closed the first half on a 25-7 run, sparked by 15 points from Zion Young, and headed into halftime with a 48-28 lead.
The second half wasn’t pretty on either side, with UTRGV only making two field goals in the first 10 minutes. The T-Bird defense held the Vaqueros to just 18 made field goals in the contest, shooting 27% from the floor and 2-15 from three.
T-Bird Leaders
Young finished the game with 20 points in 24 minutes, shooting 6-14 from the floor and 3-9 from three. Parsa Fallah finished the game with 17 points on 7-8 from the field; he also had five rebounds and two assists.
Dominique Ford finished the game with nine points but tied for a team-high eight rebounds and dished two assists. Prophet Johnson was great off the bench, scoring four points, pulling down eight rebounds, and diming a team-high six assists.
Defensively for the Thunderbirds, Brock Felder had a career-high four blocks on the night to go along with six points, four rebounds, and an assist. Chazz Hutchison shot perfect from the field, scoring nine points on 4-4 shooting; he also had eight rebounds, a block, and a steal.
Up Next:
The Thunderbirds will hit the road and head south to Utah Tech on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. and then travel further south to Grand Canyon to take on the Lopes on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.
Thunderbird women
EDINBURG, Texas — Four players scored in double-figures as the Southern Utah University women’s basketball team defeated University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in overtime 68-65 on Saturday.
Southern Utah University women’s basketball team defeated University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in overtime 68-65 in Edinburg, Texas, Feb. 3, 2024 | Photo courtesy SUU Athletics, St. George News
The Thunderbirds improve to 6-14 on the season and 4-7 in Western Athletic Conference Play, while the Vaqueros fall to 4-16 and 3-8.
“Road wins are tough and I’m just really proud of our effort,” Thunderbird head coach Tracy Mason said. “They came together as a group and we had a lot of people make some huge plays on offense and defense.”
Southern Utah led 20-15 at the end of the first quarter. Daylani Ballena drilled a jumper to push the Thunderbirds advantage back to double digits, 39-29, at the beginning of the third quarter. The Vaqueros fought back during a 16-3 run to retake a 45-42 lead with 4:36 on the clock. However, SUU closed the quarter on a 7-0 run to hold a 49-45 advantage heading into the final period.
After a back-and-forth second half, Alexa Lord added a point from the charity stripe to give SUU a 63-62 advantage with 4:20 remaining. Ballena raced to the rim for a layup with just under three minutes to play to push SUU in front 65-62. After the Vaqueros drained a three pointer to tie the game, Ballena earned a trip to the foul line where she gave the Thunderbirds a 66-65 advantage with 1:40 to play.
Lord came up huge for the Thunderbirds defensively down the stretch, drawing an offensive foul on the Vaqueros to return the ball to SUU with 37 seconds on the clock. On the ensuing possession, Johnston was fouled and knocked down both shots at the charity stripe for SUU. The Vaqueros attempted a three pointer to tie the game in the waning seconds, but the Thunderbirds got the stop to earn a 68-65 road victory.
T-Bird Leaders
Samantha Johnston scored a season-high 18 points to go along with a career-best nine rebounds. Daylani Ballena added 16 points, six rebounds and a team-high seven assists. Alexa Lord recorded an impressive double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds while shooting an efficient 6-7 from the field. Ashley Banks was the fourth T-Bird to reach double-figure scoring, pouring in 11 points in addition to grabbing five rebounds.
The Thunderbird women’s basketball team fell to UT Arlington 85-59 on Feb. 1 at the College Park Center in Texas. Senior guard Daylani Ballena scored 12 points in the loss to push her career scoring total to 1,008. She joins 14 T-Birds in the 1,000 career points club.
Up Next:
Southern Utah will return to Cedar City on Thursday, Feb. 8 as the Thunderbirds host in-state rival Utah Tech. The game is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time.
Written by Parker Haynie and Tyler Francis, Southern Utah University Athletics Communications.
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