Southern Utah meets Idaho in Big Sky tourney

by The Associated Press
| March 9, 2020 1:30 PM

No. 10 seed Idaho (8-23, 4-16) vs. No. 7 seed Southern Utah (16-15, 9-11)

Big Sky Conference Tourney First Round, CenturyLink Arena, Boise, Idaho; Wednesday, 1 p.m. EDT

BOTTOM LINE: Idaho is set to face Southern Utah in the first round of the Big Sky tournament. Southern Utah swept the two-game regular season series. The teams last met on Feb. 29, when the Thunderbirds outshot Idaho 54.1 percent to 40.7 percent and hit seven more 3-pointers en route to the 32-point victory.

SENIOR STUDS: Idaho's Trevon Allen, Quinton Forrest and Marquell Fraser have combined to account for 48 percent of the team's scoring this season, including 77 percent of all Vandals points over the last five games.ACCURATE ALLEN: Allen has connected on 40.3 percent of the 149 3-pointers he's attempted and has gone 11 for 23 over his last three games. He's also converted 81.1 percent of his free throws this season.

WINLESS WHEN: Idaho is 0-16 when scoring fewer than 65 points and 8-7 when scoring at least 65.

WINNING WHEN: Southern Utah is a perfect 6-0 when the team records nine or more steals. The Thunderbirds are 10-15 when they steal the ball fewer than nine times.

GETTING DEFENSIVE: The stout Southern Utah defense has held opposing offenses to a field goal percentage of 39.7 percent, the 23rd-lowest mark in Division I. Idaho has allowed opponents to shoot 44.9 percent through 31 games (ranking the Vandals 277th).

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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com