Poor Start, Shooting Dooms SUU In Upset Loss To Portland State In Big Sky Tournament
Mar 10, 2022, 7:50 PM
Southern Utah forward Maizen Fausett (Courtesy of Southern Utah Athletics)
(Courtesy of Southern Utah Athletics)
SALT LAKE CITY – The Southern Utah Thunderbirds couldn’t get off to a strong start as they fell to Portland State 77-65 in the Big Sky quarterfinals on Thursday.
Maizen Fausett led SUU with 19 points and nine rebounds in the loss to Portland State. Dre Marin poured in 13 points and four rebounds. John Knight III chipped in 13 points and seven rebounds, while committing seven turnovers.
SUU entered the Big Sky Tournament at the 2-seed, while Portland State was the 7-seed.
For Portland State, Khalid Thomas led the way with 20 points and seven rebounds. Michael Carter III added 13 points and six boards.
Final.#StormTheSky pic.twitter.com/Pq3r8W6brX
— SUU Men's Basketball (@SUUBasketball) March 11, 2022
Portland State Pulls Off Upset Over SUU In Big Sky Tournament
It wasn’t the best start for Southern Utah with the Thunderbirds trailing 11-2 in the first five minutes. They had five turnovers and shot 2-of-7 from the field. That start carried through the first half as SUU shot 30% from the field and missed all seven of their three-point attempts.
John Knight III led the T-Birds with eight points with Jason Spurgin adding five points. PSU shot 52% from the field and knocked down four of their nine attempts from downtown in the first half.
The Thunderbirds couldn’t get over the hump early in the second half as Portland State kept them at arm’s length. The largest run that SUU went on was 6-0. Southern Utah missed their first 16 attempts from beyond the arc before making their first triple of the game with under five minutes to play.
The Vikings got a big slam dunk that put them up by 16 and put the exclamation point on the game. Although, SUU was able to pull within 10 points in the final minute but came up short of the comeback.
Southern Utah dropped their record to 20-11 overall and 14-7 in Big Sky play. They could play in a postseason tournament, whether it’s the CIT, CBI or even the NIT. The Thunderbirds will know if that is a possibility on Sunday.
