Saint George, Utah (AP) – Hakim Byrd collected 19 points in the 72-65 victory of Utah Tech against southern Utah on Tuesday in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament to take a sequence of 13 consecutive defeats.
Byrd added three interceptions for the trailblazers (7-25). Noa Gonsalves scored 14 points, pulling 5 for 11, including 3 for 5 beyond the arc. Samuel Ariyibi pulled 4 out of 11 on the field and 3 out of 4 from the Launche francs line to finish with 11 points, while adding six rebounds and five assists.
Dominique Ford paved the way for Thunderbirds (12-19) with 16 points and two interceptions. Jamir Simpson added 13 points and seven rebounds.
Utah Tech took the lead with 10:37 to play in the first half and did not give it up. Byrd led his team by scoring 14 points in the first half to help them advance 38-27 at the break. Gonsalves paved the way with a top of eight points in the second half.
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The Associated Press created this story using the technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
