CEDAR CITY, Utah, Jan. 9 - Southern Utah junior Challis Pascucci notched a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds but Southern Utah couldn't overcome South Dakota State's experience  and size as the defending Summit League champions claimed a 59-45 win over Southern Utah Saturday.

            The Jackrabbits grabbed the lead from the opening tip and never trailed as Ketty Corneman scored eight points as the Jackrabbits jumped out to a 10-2 lead. After Tayler Anderson scored inside for the 'Birds to stop the run SDSU's Kristin Rotert scored eight points as the 'Jacks outscored SUU 8-1 to extend their advantage to 18-5.

            SDSU pushed its lead to 28-9 but the Thunderbirds rallied, pulling back within 30-17 on a Kaila Goff layup and two free throws by Caitlyn Sears, but the Jackrabbits scored the final six points of the half to take a 36-17 edge at the break.

            The Thunderbirds rallied out of the break, outscoring the Jackrabbits 13-4 to open the second half to pull within 40-30 on a 3-point play by Sears with 15:00 minutes to go, but the Thunderbirds weren't able to cut further into the lead.

            "We made our runs at them a couple of times," SUU Coach JR Payne pointed out. "Our players didn't quit and we had a good effort on the defensive end. I'm proud of the way we kept battling them. We also did a better job taking care of the ball tonight.

            "We had a hard time with their size, and they're very experienced," Payne said. "South Dakota State is a team that went to the NCAA tournament last year, a team that was in the top-25 all season and even though they lost some players from that team they are still very experienced and talented and you could see that tonight. Every time we made a run at them they were able to respond."

            South Dakota State, which starts a pair of seniors and two juniors, used a significant size advantage to out-rebound the Thunderbirds 52-32. Southern Utah limited SDSU to 34 percent shooting, 18-of-53, but the Jackrabbits did a good job defensively on the Thunderbirds as well as SUU finished at just 29.2 percent after hitting 19 of 65 shots.

            SUU had just 15 turnovers while forcing 20 SDSU miscues.

            South Dakota State had a huge advantage at the free throw line, attempting 29 charity tosses and hitting 22 of them while SUU went to the line just nine times, converting six.           

            Sears finished with 11 points and three assists for the Thunderbirds while Kaila Goff had four assists for SUU and Pascucci blocked three shots.

            Cornermann led all scorers with 15 points while Rotert had 14 points and 11 rebounds for South Dakota State.

-- SUU --