Southern Utah carried a 35-31 lead into the break, but a sluggish start to the second half led to a 70-64 defeat against BYU in a women's basketball game at the Marriott Center on Friday.

The loss drops the Thunderbirds to 1-4 on the year, while BYU moves to 3-2.

Caitlyn Sears led the Thunderbirds with 13 points, following by Challis Pascucci and Anne Higbee with 10 each. Shawnee Slade led the Cougars with a game-high 18 points. SUU outrebounded BYU 42-31, led by Sears' nine.

With the score deadlocked at 23 with 4:24 in the first half, SUU went on a 12-4 run capped off with a Morgan Slade lay-up.

Back-to-back buckets by the Cougars over the final 1:01 of the half pushed the T-Birds' lead to four going into the intermission.

The Cougars opened the first part of the second half on a 21-6 run, building a double-digit lead of 52-41. The gap continued to grow, culminating in a 61-43 hole with 9:50 remaining in the game.