CEDAR CITY, Utah - March 4 - Southern Utah women's basketball will be in the hunt for an NCAA tournament berth when the Thunderbirds begin the Summit League Women's Basketball Championship tournament this weekend.  SUU is slated to play Oral Roberts University in the first round.

“This is another one of those seasons within the season,” head coach JR Payne said.  “Everybody starts in the tournament 0-0 and anything can happen.  Oral Roberts is a very good team and put a hurting on us both games this year, but we know what we need to do to beat them and plan to leave it all out on the court.”

Southern Utah dropped both games to the Golden Eagles this season as ORU captured victories of 109-62 in Tulsa and a 94-70 victory on Monday night in Cedar City.  The secret to the Eagles' success lied in their 3-point shooting as the team connected on 35-of-65 from long range to the tune of 53 percent.

SUU did win the battle of the boards with Oral Roberts this season, out rebounding ORU 85 to 75, including 35 to 27 on the offensive end of the floor.

Challis Pascucci and Caitlyn Sears led the team in scoring both games as the duo averaged 11.5 and 20 points per game, respectively.  Pascucci averaged a double-double in both games, pulling down 10.5 rebounds per contest.

The duo has led the team in scoring throughout the year with Pascucci tops on the team with 12.0 points per game and Sears with 10.8 points per game.  Pascucci also leads the team and league in rebounding with 9.7 per game.

Southern Utah will return to the conference tournament after having missed the postseason last year for the first time since joining the Summit League.  The Thunderbirds have not advanced out of the first round of the tournament since the 1998-99 season when the T-Birds lost in the semi-final game to Youngstown State, 80-63.

Tip-off for the game on Saturday is scheduled for Noon (CT).

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