Southern Utah takes tough 91-66 loss to California Baptist to start WAC play
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CEDAR CITY — As the tenth-ranked team in the Western Athletic Conference, Southern Utah welcomed the top-ranked California Baptist Lancers to start conference play Wednesday night.
But a 21-point effort off the bench by Cal Baptist's Scotty Washington propelled the Lancers to a 91-66 win.
It was Cal Baptist's first game away from home this year, and they proved they can win on the road just as well. Sitting at 6-1 on the season, the Lancers showed why they top the standings of the WAC. Their 91-point total was their highest of the season.
For Southern Utah, it was the team's biggest loss of the season so far and drops them to 2-4 on the season.
"When you are trying to build a program, you are going to have some tough nights," Thunderbirds head coach Rob Jeter said. "Tonight was one of those nights."
Washington's big game was a career performance and even tripled his previous season high of 7 points. His teammates Blondeau Tchoukuiegno, Brantly Stevenson and Yvan Ouedraogo all finished with double-digit points, as well. As a team, the Lancers shot 51.5% from the field and 47.8% from 3-point range.
The Thunderbirds, though they shot 50% and had four players with 10 points or more, attempted fewer shots than they have all season. The Cal Baptist defense made it difficult to get shots off and held Southern Utah to 25-of-50 from the field.
The Lancers shut down starting guard Zion Young, in particular, and only allowed him to score 4 points. Young entered the game as the Thunderbirds' top scorer, averaging 16.6 points per game; instead, Dominique Ford took the wheel, leading Southern Utah with 16 points.
Southern Utah led by as many as 6 points in the first half, but once the team lost control, it never got it back.
With just over 11 minutes left in the first half, Washington hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Cal Baptist a 5-point lead and to take the momentum for good. The two accounted for Washington's six 3-pointers in the game, which tied the most made in a single game by a WAC player this season.
The Thunderbirds managed to keep the deficit in the single digits for the remainder of the first half, but trailed by 8 points at the break.
The two teams traded shots for a stretch to start the second half, but once Cal Baptist built up a lead to double digits, it only continued to grow from there.
Foul trouble hurt Southern Utah as they gave up nine of Cal Baptist's 10 made free throws in the second half alone. The Lancers' biggest lead of the night peaked at 31 points, the widest gap they have put between themselves and their opponents through their first seven games.
Late in the game, the Thunderbirds went on an 11-3 run, but it was far from enough to put them within reach of the win.
"The strength of our team is unity," Lancers head coach Rick Croy said. "We had an incredibly balanced effort tonight. What we saw tonight was the culmination of a lot of work and competitive excellence from our guys."
Croy guided Cal Baptist to their first win over the Thunderbirds since 2010 after having lost to them twice last season.
Southern Utah was outrebounded 35-29, 14 of which came on offensive rebounds, to extend the team's streak to four games where they've been outrebounded by their opponent.
The Lancers also forced 17 turnovers, which resulted in 23 points for Cal Baptist, hurting Southern Utah's reign as the team with the fewest total turnovers in the WAC.
Southern Utah continues WAC play this weekend with a road trip to Seattle University for a Saturday night matchup. The Lancers will take a full week off before taking on Utah Tech in St. George.
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