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Fred House, right, the leading scorer for Southern Utah, delivers a pass around Utah's Jeff Johnsen during the Thunderbirds' 77-70 victory Dec. 22 at Salt Lake City. Southern Utah coach Bill Evans considers that victory the turning point in his team's season as it prepares for its first NCAA Tournament appearance. The Thunderbirds will play Boston College on Thursday in the East Regional. AP File Photo

Tuesday, March 13, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Southern Utah in new role

December victory against Utah lifted Thunderbirds to higher level

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- When Bill Evans was asked to name the key that gave Southern Utah the thrust it needed to go to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, he didn't hesitate.

"The night we beat Utah," he said.

It was Dec. 22, one of those "guarantee games" in which Southern Utah goes on the road, gets its collective head handed to it and picks up a paycheck for its efforts.

But this time, it was different. This time, the Thunderbirds won.

Evans' team was at the Huntsman Center, facing Utah, a team it had never defeated in three previous tries. And despite not having their coach, Rick Majerus, on the sidelines because of health problems, the Utes still figured to have too much for Southern Utah.

Instead, the visitors frustrated the Utes with their matchup zone defense, Dan Beus scored a career-high 20 points, the Thunderbirds shot lights out from long distance and, when the final horn sounded, they were 77-70 winners.

"We were up 75-70 with 10 seconds to go, and I turned to my assistant, Pat Harrington, and I said, 'Can you believe this?' " Evans recalled.

"We had had a bad loss a couple of weeks before at UMKC (Missouri-Kansas City), and we were struggling.

"But when we beat Utah, I said, 'Hey, maybe we are this good.' We hung around until the end. We made some shots. We had other people step up. It was a great team win for us."

Southern Utah went on to win 10 of its next 11 games and carried that momentum into the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament, which it won. Now, the 25-5 Thunderbirds are preparing for their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. They are the 14th seed in the East Regional and will play Boston College on Thursday at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.

Evans said the experience in Salt Lake City in December will serve his team well this week.

"It gave our guys confidence that they can go on the road and compete against a quality team," he said. "We haven't had a lot of success in the past in these kinds of guarantee games. I think in the last 40 of this type of games, we've won three."

Now, they take a seven-game winning streak to Long Island. Fred House, the team's top scorer, said that night in Salt Lake City was part of a maturation process that had been in the works for three years.

"We're a family," he said. "We lost our share of games. Now we've learned how to win, and we're winning together."

• TV NOTE -- Thursday's game will start at 4:40 p.m., and KLAS-TV (Channel 8) plans to televise the game live.