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The Southern Utah's men's basketball team closed out the first half of Big Sky Conference play with back-to-back wins, and now the Thunderbirds will look to ride that momentum into the second half of league play with games against Sacramento State Thursday and Northern Arizona Saturday.
SUU (7-12, 5-5 Big Sky) fell to the Hornets 64-59 on Jan. 7 in a game where CSUS opened the game on a 22-6 run and never trailed at any point. Despite never leading, SUU battled its way back from a slow start to tie the game early in the second half, but never found a way past the Hornets.
Jackson Stevenett led the T-Birds with 24 points and 12 rebounds on 8 of 15 shooting that day, but SUU shot 32 percent from the field as a team in the loss.
The loss set SUU into a tailspin, sparking a five-game losing streak. However, the T-Birds broke the spell last week with wins over Portland State and Eastern Washington to head into the halfway point of Big Sky play with an edge.
"We need to keep this streak going, keep playing like we have the last couple of games," Stevenett said. "I feel like we owe Sacramento State one — I feel like they got away with one at their place. We just have to be doing what we've been doing the past couple of days. If we do that, we'll come out on top."
SUU heads into the second half of Big Sky play looking for vengeance; the T-Birds take on CSUS Thursday. Head Coach Nick Robinson said the key this time around with the Hornets is to get off to a better start than it did on Jan. 7.
"We have to get out to a better start (this time around)," Robinson said. "Obviously, they came out and jumped on us at their place and sustained that energy throughout the game. They played better than we did for 40 minutes, so for us we have to do some of the things we've done for the past two games in taking care of the basketball: defend at a higher rate and continue to rebound at a high rate."
CSUS (10-8, 5-5 Big Sky) enters the matchup fourth in scoring defense in the Big Sky at 66.9 points allowed per game. The Hornets are one of only four conference teams with a positive scoring margin and are third, with a +1.6 average per game. In addition, CSUS is second in field goal defense, allowing teams to shoot just 42 percent per game.
The Hornets are also fourth in the conference in rebounding margin at +1.4. The T-Birds enter the week second, at +4.5.
"They zoned us a lot last time we played them, and I'd expect them to do something similar and try to pack it in," assistant coach Jared Barrett said. "We're going to try to take it inside and pass it back out, but we have to knock down shots."
John Dickson leads the Hornets with 13.6 points per game, but was held scoreless in 15 minutes of action the last time the two teams met. Mikh McKinney, who averages 13.2 points this season, picked up Dickson's slack with 18 points.
The T-Birds will then take on NAU Saturday in a completely differently paced matchup.
The game will feature the four top scorers in the Big Sky. NAU guards Gabe Rogers (16.4 ppg) and DeWayne Russell (15.7 ppg) enter the weekend first and third in scoring this season, while Stevenett (16.2 ppg) and guard Damon Heuir (15.6 ppg) are currently second and fourth. However, the Lumberjacks (7-13, 4-6 Big Sky) have struggled defensively this season.
NAU enters this week dead last in scoring defense, allowing 76.2 points per game and -9.5 in scoring margin. "It should be pretty exciting," guard Jordan Johnson said. "They've got two guards that can really score, they've got a post play that's really good and they like to press a lot. I remember that when we played them. They're always pressing and trying to make you run and jump."
In SUU's last game with the Lumberjacks, the T-Birds scored a season-high 90 points in a 90-77 win. SUU also shot a season-best 57 percent from the field, 54 percent from 3-point range. Heuir also dropped 30 points in the win.
"I'm sure they're thinking we had the best shooting night we've ever had," Stevenett said. "We have to come out and prove them that's not the case. We've been shooting a lot this week and we're at home. We shoot well on the road, but we shoot better at home."
SUU will look to keep its turnovers down, like it did last week. The T-Birds turned the ball over just 11 times against PSU and 12 times against EWU, which is much better than their 17.1 turnovers-per-game-average.
Robinson said the team needs to continue that success in the second half of conference play.
Tip-off against the Hornets is set for 7 p.m. inside the Centrum Arena Thursday, while SUU's matchup with NAU is set to start at 7 p.m. Saturday.
"(To win) would be extremely big," Johnson said. "That'd put us back in the mix of things. If we win two, that gives us seven wins, and Montana State is sitting in third right now with six, so it puts us back up with them."
