Southern Utah Falls To Eastern Washington 82-79

Feb 2, 2019, 5:15 PM

(Eastern Washington Athletics)

KSL Sports

CHENEY, Wash. – After leading the game for over 30 minutes, the Southern Utah Thunderbirds couldn’t hold on as they lost to the Eastern Washington Eagles 82-79.

Brandon Better scored a career-high 35 points, including 7-of-12 from downtown for SUU. Dre Marin added 11 points and Jacob Calloway chipped in 10 points.

For EWU, Kim Aiken notched a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds, Jacob Davison poured in 21 points.

Mid-way through the first half, Southern Utah had a 16-12 lead, with Better scoring 6 of their first 16 points.

Better dropped six more points to help the Thunderbirds stretch their lead to 27-17 with 7 minutes left in the first half.

Southern Utah only scored 10 points in the last 7 minutes of the half and allowed the Eagles to score 20 points to tie the game at 37 at halftime.

With four minutes left in the game, Southern Utah had a 68-67 lead before the Eagles took their first lead of the second half.

From that point, Eastern Washington 14-2 over a 3-minute stretch.

SUU attempted a huge comeback when they hit one triple and Better made three free throws.

The Eagles made one of their two free throws to put their lead to 82-79 and the Thunderbirds threw the ball away on the their game-tying attempt.

Brandon’s got a BRAND NEW Career-High ⚡️ The senior has 35 points, and has given us a shot at the end here… pic.twitter.com/ms5OyE6lhH

— SUU Men’s Basketball (@SUUBasketball) February 2, 2019

Southern Utah dropped to a 9-10 overall record, including 4-6 in the Big Sky and have lost 3 straight games.

They will finish their four game road trip on Monday against Idaho at 8 p.m. on Pluto TV. The Vandals are 4-15 and 1-7 in conference play.

This will be the first of two meeting of the season between the two schools. Idaho won both match ups last season by almost the same score. The Vandals won 80-76 in Cedar City and 78-76 in Moscow, Idaho.