OREM, Utah – The Southern Utah women’s basketball team opened their road season Saturday evening with a 71-58 win over the Utah Valley Wolverines. The Lady T-Birds are now 2-0 on the season for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
Rebecca Cardenas set a new career high in scoring, leading all scorers with 23 points in the win, most of them scored in the first half. She dropped in four three-pointers and also had four rebounds and two steals. Ashley Larsen set a new career high in rebounding with 13 rebounds, 10 defensive and three offensive. Harley Hansen was the only other Thunderbird to reach double-digit points with 13 and Darri Frandsen also contributed nine rebounds.
Things went back-and-forth to open the game, with neither team getting up by more than five points. After the Thunderbirds got out to a five-point lead on free throws from Claudia Armato, the Wolverines quickly tied the game up at 13-13 with 3:52 remaining in the quarter.
The T-Birds then went on one of the largest scoring runs in recent history, scoring 24 unanswered points over the next nine minutes of play. UVU was able to stop the bleeding with a bucket from Alexis Cortez, but found themselves in a 22-point hole. Southern Utah continued to put up points and held a 25-point lead at the halftime break.
Cardenas had 19 points in the first half and was 4-for-6 from beyond the arc.
The Lady T-Birds cooled off in the second half, getting outscored 25-37, but the game never got closer than 13 points. SUU took their biggest lead of the game when they opened the fourth quarter with a triple from Jessica Chatman and a layup from Hansen to go up by 28. The Wolverines would go on a 19-4 run for the remainder of the game, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Thunderbirds came away with the 71-58 victory.
The Thunderbirds will hit the road again next week to take on another WAC opponent in Grand Canyon University on Thursday, November 14.
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Story and Photos courtesy of SUU Athletics
