(Cedar City, Utah - Feb. 13, 2025) - A last-second tip-in layup by Southern Utah handed the Trailblazers a hard-fought 76-74 loss to the Thunderbirds on Thursday night at America First Event Center.

"I love the effort and we played hard tonight. We had to go small ball with Tobi being out really hurt us, and sometimes when you do that, you have to give up something and the thing we gave up was offensive rebounds. I love that we continued to fight and you have to give them credit, they hit some big shots and we came up just short," said head coach Jon Judkins.

Led by freshman guard Madiba Owona, the France native doubled his previous season high finishing with 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the floor adding season highs in rebounds (four) & blocks (two) and a steal.

Two other Trailblazers finished in double figures with Beon Riley adding 17 points while Noa Gonsalves chipped in 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Southern Utah (11-14, 3-8 WAC) tallied five Thunderbirds in double figures led by 17 points by senior guard Jamir Simpson.

Sophomore forward Brock Felder added 10 points and grabbed a team-leading seven rebounds & notched a pair of blocks.

How It Happened
A back-and forth opening first half saw the Trailblazers get out to a 13-12 lead after a jumper by Riley.

A 6-0 run for the Thunderbirds put Southern Utah ahead 18-13, but a three-pointer by Dallin Grant and dunk by Tennessee Rainwater locked up the game at 18.

After a layup by Owona put UT ahead 26-25, SUU answered with a 7-0 run to go ahead by six and stayed ahead for the remainder of the half taking a 42-37 lead to halftime.

With the Thunderbirds continuing to lead 53-52 after the first eight minutes of the second half, a layup by Gonsalves gave the Trailblazers a 54-53 lead.

SUU jumped back in the lead with a jumper and continued to lead for the next six minutes before a three-pointer by Rainwater gave UT a 66-64 edge with 5:43 to play.

Four straight free throws put SUU up by a pair, but a three-pointer by Justin Bieker put the Trailblazers back in front by one, 69-68.

UT continued to lead by one, 71-70 with 1:57 to play, but a three-pointer by SUU's Dominique Ford put Thunderbirds ahead 73-71.

After the teams traded one free throw apiece, two free throws by Riley tied the game with 25 seconds left..

With the game appearing to head for overtime, a tip-in layup by Jeffrey Langston Jr. with 1.8 seconds left proved to be the game-winning basket for Southern Utah.

Numbers to Know

• The Trailblazers fall to 3-6 against Southern Utah and 0-5 in Cedar City.
• Utah Tech falls to 0-5 in games decided by three points or less and have dropped their last six games decided by three or less dating back to a 70-68 win at home over Southern Utah on Feb. 8, 2024.
• The Trailblazers shot 49.1 percent (26-53) from the field, 42.1 percent (8-19) from three-point range and 70 percent (14-20) from the free throw line.
• UT held the edge in fast break points (8-1), but SUU led the way in points in the paint (24-22), points off turnovers (7-4), second chance points (20-2) and bench points (21-13).
• Gonsalves saw his streak of 29 straight made free throws come to an end in the second half.
• Gonsalves has now scored in doubles figures in 19 games, Riley in 14 and Owona in two.
• Gonsalves moved past former teammate Cameron Gooden (2020-23) into sixth place in program history in points on Thursday as he now has has 1,120 career points.
• The six turnovers by the Thunderbirds were a season-low for a UT opponent with the previous low being seven by UT Arlington on Feb. 1.

Up Next
The Trailblazers head to California Baptist (12-12, 5-5 WAC) on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the CBU Events Center in Riverside.

A Watch Party will be held in St. George at Cafe Sabor for those Trailblazer fans interested in cheering on Utah Tech from afar.