POCATELLO, Idaho-Thursday evening, Southern Utah men’s basketball (9-5, 2-1 in Big Sky Conference play) visits Reed Gym to battle the Idaho State Bengals (5-7, 2-1 in Big Sky).
In his fourth season at SUU, head coach Todd Simon (45-68, .398) has the Thunderbirds in third place in the Big Sky after a 59-53 win over Montana State Saturday at the America First Event Center.
SUU scores 74.8 points per game, which ranks the Thunderbirds 112th in scoring offense.
Junior guard John Knight III (13.1 points per game) leads SUU in scoring and is tied for a team-best 32 assists with redshirt senior guard/forward Cameron Oluyitan (12.6 points, 5.1 rebounds per game).
Redshirt senior forward Dwayne Morgan (11 points per game) also scores in double figures on-average for the Thunderbirds this season.
Sophomore guard Harrison Butler leads the squad in rebounds (7.9 per game) and is tied for the team lead in blocked shots with sophomore forward Maizen Fausett (11 blocked shots per contest).
The Thunderbirds out-rebound opponents 40.1-31.7 per game as their +8.4 rebound margin per game ranks them 17th nationally.
SUU surrenders 63.9 points per game, ranking the Thunderbirds 67th nationally in scoring defense.
The Bengals are coached by first-year head coach Ryan Looney (5-7, .417) and are coming off of a 68-49 loss to Sacramento State last Saturday.
Idaho State scores 68.5 points per game as the Bengals are tied for 253rd nationally in scoring offense with UNLV.
Junior guard Tarik Cool leads Idaho State in scoring (14.6 points per game), steals (15) and assists (43).
Senior forward, Australian national Chier Maker (12.2 points, 5.3 rebounds per game) and senior guard Jared Stutzman (10.2 points per game) also score in double figures on-average for the Bengals.
Senior forward Chidi Udengwu leads Idaho State in rebounding (5.9 boards per game) and junior forward Malik Porter has a team-best 11 blocked shots for the Bengals.
The Thunderbirds lead the Bengals 19-12 all-time and have won four of their last five games against Idaho State in the series.
