BOISE, Idaho — The Southern Utah women’s basketball team entered the Big Sky Conference Championship tournament as the tenth-seed Monday evening and scored a huge 64-56 upset victory over seventh-seeded Montana Grizzlies.
Both teams played twice during the regular season splitting the series, with each team winning at home.
The victory for SUU was the first in the Big Sky Tournament since the 2013-2014 season.
“We learned a lot about ourselves when we beat Montana last week”, SUU Junior Guard Rebecca Cardenas said after the game ended. “ I think having that game so late in the season really gave us confidence that if we stuck to our game plan and played our game that we could come here to Boise and beat anybody.”
SUU led the game from beginning to end going on a 11-2 run to start the game and having the lead at the end of the first quarter 20-11.
The Grizzlies found momentum in the second quarter, but the Thunderbirds walked into halftime with the lead 33-23 at the break.
Halfway through the third quarter the Grizzlies clawed their way back into the game. However the Thunderbirds finished strong going into the fourth quarter and it was all Thunderbird basketball from that point on for the upset of the No.7 seeded Grizzlies.
Top performers for the Thunderbirds were Cardneas and Ashley Larsen, both finished the game with double-double performances.
Breanu Reid finished with 15 points, and a notable performance by Harley Hansen finishing with 10 points and a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw stripe.
The Lady Thunderbirds advance to the next round of the Big Sky Tournament tomorrow at 5:30pm against No.2 seed Northern Colorado.
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