CEDAR PARK, Utah — Sam Houston could not hang with a hot-shooting Southern Utah team en route to an 86-74 loss at the American First Event Center on Thursday night.
The Bearkats (12-5 overall, 2-3 WAC) ran into a buzzsaw as the Thunderbirds (12-6, 4-1) went 13 for 23 from 3-point range and shot 55.6 percent from the field. Sam Houston also shot the ball well, 9 for 17 from behind the arc and 52.9 percent from the floor but could never get over the hump.
Southern Utah went into the half with 49-35 lead, and the Kats responded to open the second period.
Donte Powers, who had 12 points in the first, hit a jumper and
Cameron Huefner scored on a layup to cut the lead to 10. Huefner then scored five straight points to cut the lead to 49-44, but as was the case all night, the Thunderbirds hit a 3 to push the advantage to eight.
Every time Sam Houston looked like it was going to make up some ground, Southern Utah hit big shot after big shot. The Bearkats got within four a couple of times in the second half until the Thunderbirds finally put the game away in the final five minutes.
Qua Grant led Sam Houston with 17 points, and Powers had 14 on 4 for 6 shooting from 3. Huefner had 12 points and
Lamar Wilkerson scored eight.
The Kats will play at Utah Tech on Saturday at 8 p.m.
