Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CHENEY, Wash. (AP) — Kim Aiken Jr. set career highs with 24 points and 11 rebounds as Eastern Washington rallied to beat Southern Utah 82-79 on Saturday.
Aiken's 3-pointer with 4:39 left cut the Eagles' deficit to 68-67 and sparked a 15-2 run capped by an Aiken free throw at 79-70 with 40 seconds left. The Thunderbirds closed back to 81-79 on Brandon Better's 3-pointer with two seconds left.
Aiken made 1 of 2 free throws with one second left and stole it from Cameron Oluyitan in the final second to secure the win.
“We’ve got to play better basketball,” SUU coach Todd Simon said. “We don’t have a massive amount of mistakes, but everybody has a couple, and we’ve got to clean those up and focus on ourselves. That’ll give us a good chance to get a road win.”
Aiken finished 8 of 10 from the field, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Jacob Davison added 21 points, Jesse Hunt had 16 points and Tyler Kidd scored 15. The Eagles (7-13, 5-4 Big Sky) have won four of the last five.
Better had career highs of 35 points and seven 3-pointers for the Thunderbirds (9-10, 4-6).
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
