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CEDAR CITY – The Southern Utah men's basketball team took a quick stop at home to host the Idaho State Bengals before returning to the road next week.
Southern Utah won the matchup 82-74 to snap a three-game losing streak and lift their record to 3-6. Idaho State, on the other hand, has now lost two straight and are sitting at 4-6 on the season.
Though the game started tight, the first 10 minutes were under the Bengals' control. Idaho State took that time to force eight missed shots by the Thunderbirds to take a 14-13 lead before building up their largest lead of 6 points.
After the first 10 minutes, though, Southern Utah's Parsa Fallah made a layup to put the Thunderbirds on top and never took his foot off the gas. He led all scorers in the first half points with 15, which was just under half of all Southern Utah scoring, as the home team controlled a 33-26 lead at intermission.
Entering the second half down by 7, Idaho State fought to keep the deficit in single digits; and the Bengals did a decent job of not letting the Thunderbirds run away with the lead. It was kept manageable for the most part and never grew larger than 14 points.
Fallah's big night continued with 14 more points and just one missed shot in the second half. He finished the night with 29 points after going 16-of-19 from the field and collected a game-leading seven rebounds in the process.
In the end, Southern Utah barely outscored Idaho State in the second half, 49-48, but it was enough to finish the game with a win.
"We got better tonight, which is always the ultimate goal," Thunderbirds head coach Rob Jeter said. "Defensively, we played really well in the first half, disrupting a lot of what their offense was trying to do and forcing turnovers that led to easy baskets on the other end. Overall, I am very proud of our team, and we are trending in the right direction."
The Thunderbirds forced more turnovers than they have all year, getting possession back from the Bengals 19 times and scoring 20 points as a result. Braden Housley had a season-high four steals. Meanwhile, Southern Utah committed just eight turnovers of their own, tying a season low.
Fallah's fellow Thunderbirds — Prophet Johnson, Zion Young and Dominique Ford — all ended with double figures. Housley contributed to the scoring effort with his seven assists, more than any Southern Utah player this season.
The Bengals lead the Big Sky Conference in field goal percentage, and their performance in Cedar City only helped. Idaho State ended the game shooting 57.4% from the field, including 74.1% in the second half alone.
As the top two Big Sky players in the category, Kiree Huie and Brayden Parker shot particularly well. Huie, who tied his career high of 20 points, shot 10-of-12 from the field, while Parker went 8-of-10 to earn 16 points.
Southern Utah will have a full week off before facing Northern Arizona on the road, while Idaho State will take a week and a half before their matchup at Oregon State.
