By Spencer Rodak , Stadium Sportzz
CHENEY, Wash. – Traveling to face future Big Sky foe Eastern Washington on Thursday night, the SUU women’s basketball team notched a 74-68 win to improve to 3-0.
The T-birds got off to a good start, using a pair of three-pointers from Ava Uhrich and Kortney Doman to take an 8-4 lead. An 8-0 run would put SUU ahead 18-10, and they would close out the first quarter leading 24-18.
The second quarter featured less offense, but the Thunderbirds still outscored the Eagles 16-9. Six points from Ashley Banks highlighted the period, while Sierra Chambers added five as Southern Utah took a 13-point lead to halftime, 40-27.
SUU would push its advantage to 15 with the first bucket of the third quarter, and they would lead by double figures almost the entire period. Ava Uhrich recorded 10 points in the quarter as the T-birds remained in front by 13 at the break, 59-46.
Eastern Washington would hit back-to-back three-pointers to cut the deficit to seven to open the fourth quarter (59-52), but the Thunderbirds pushed the lead back to 10 with three Morgan Trigueiro free throws. Southern Utah would then start to find itself in foul trouble, and the Eagles would cash in on eight straight points – all from the free throw line – to make it a two-point game with six minutes remaining, 62-60. The T-birds responded with an 8-0 run, including six from Sierra Chambers, to make it 70-60. Another 6-0 run by EWU cut the lead down to four (70-66), but with just 40 seconds left, Southern Utah would add four points from the line to close out the 74-68 win.
Sierra Chambers led the T-birds in the win, scoring 18 points. Ava Uhrich chipped in 15 points and 9 rebounds.
SUU shot 43 percent (28-65) in the win while limiting Eastern Washington to just under 30 percent (21-71). The Thunderbirds also edged the Eagles in rebounds (50-37), bench points (19-7), second chance points (20-12), and points in the paint (32-24).
With the win, Southern Utah improves to 3-0 early in the season.
Up next
Southern Utah (3-0) finishes a two-game road trip with a game at Idaho on Saturday, Nov. 15.
Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. MT and can be seen on ESPN+.