Clifford Leads T-Birds Past Mesa

Courtesy: Southern Utah Athletics           Release: 11/15/2008

CEDAR CITY, Utah, Nov. 15 – John Clifford was nearly perfect Saturday night in leading Southern Utah to an 85-73 men’s basketball win over Mesa State College.
    Clifford, a 6-foot-10 senior center from South Jordan, Utah, tallied career-highs of 24 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in leading the Thunderbirds to the win. He was perfect from the floor, hitting all eight of his field goal attempts. The only things keeping him from a perfect night were one missed free throw (in nine attempts) and three turnovers.
    “John had a nice night tonight,” SUU Coach Roger Reid said. “He’s been with us going on four years now and we have watched him improve every year. We said going into the season this was going to be the year he needed to step up and tonight he did. He played with a lot of energy, rebounding, going after loose balls, doing a lot of the little things besides scoring points.”
    Clifford led four Thunderbirds in double figures, as Dave Marek and Jake Nielson each finished with 11 points while Mike Josserand had 10 and a career-best seven assists.
    The Thunderbirds – who shot .574 from the floor, including .591 in the second half – started hot and ran out to a 20-7 lead mid-way through the first half but the Mavericks responded with an 11-0 run to get right back into it and SUU led by just 34-29 at halftime.
    Mesa State center Kurt Bangle scored the first five points of the second half, on a 3-point play and a layup, to tie the game at 34-34, and after Eules Thompson hit two free throws for the Thunderbirds Ryan Mathews hit  a 3-pointer to give Mesa State its first lead of the game, 37-36.
    The game stayed close and was tied at 50-50 with 11:11 to play before SUU went on a 13-3 run that started with a Dave Marek 3-pointer and ended with a thundering dunk by Clifford and a traditional 3-point play with 8:08 to go. SUU went on to push the lead to 14 and weren’t threatened the rest of the way.
    “There was no quit in that Mesa State team, I’ll tell you that,” Reid said. “They got down early but they came back and we had to play well in the second half to hold them off. We had some sloppy play at times but down the stretch I thought we played well, we ran our offense, we rebounded, we did a good job getting after them on the defensive end and in the end we were able to get the win.”
    Southern Utah out-rebounded the Mavericks 32-25, including a 21-11 margin in the first half, and were able to force 22 turnovers with nine steals to overcome 21 turnovers of its own.
    Jase Herl led Mesa State with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists while Aaron Marham chipped in 10 points with three assists and three steals. Bangle and Mathews each finished with nine points.
    Next up for the Thunderbirds is a matchup with No. 19 Florida, next Thursday in Gainesville, Fla.


Courtesy: Greg Stauffer

John Clifford had career-highs in points, rebounds and blocks Saturday night

 

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