The Southern Utah University men’s basketball team earned their first win of the season over Life Pacific University 108-73. Southern Utah improves to 1-1, while Life Pacific drops to 1-2 on the season.
First half
Southern Utah got off to a hot start, going up 18-9 early. Life Pacific played strong, cutting the lead to just four behind junior guard Austin Cook. SUU then went on a 27-6 run to close out the half. At the break, the Thunderbirds led 52-27.
Second half
SUU continued to dominate down low in the second half, outrebounding LPU 21-9 behind the strong performances of Parsa Fallah and Chazz Hutchison. The highlight of the second half was the alley-oop pass from Hutchison to freshman power forward Brock Felder. Despite Cook scoring 22 points on 66.7% from the field, Southern Utah pulled away and earned head coach Rob Jeter his first victory at SUU.
“Prophet [Johnson] got it going, so by one of us getting it going, it then helps the team camaraderie,” said guard Zion Young in the postgame press conference.
Key statistics
— Southern Utah outrebounded Life Pacific 48-22.
— As a team, LPU shot 28/65 from the field and 10/27 from three-point range.
— Johnson led SUU in scoring with 22 points, shooting 6/7 from beyond the arc.
— Young had 18 points and five rebounds while shooting an efficient 60% from the field.
— Fallah finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
What’s next?
Southern Utah will travel up to Logan to take on Utah State University on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. This game can also be streamed on ESPN+.
Author: Jack Paul
Photographer: Anden Garfield
Editor: Anden Garfield
sports@suunews.net
