BIGHORNS BLISTER THE SUNS

PRESCOTT, Ariz. ---- The Reno Bighorns (22-17) defeated to the Northern Arizona Suns (20-20) 132-125 on Wednesday night at the Prescott Valley Events Center.

Marcus Williams scored a season-high 32 points while adding six rebounds and eight assists while JaKarr Sampson had 29 points and seven rebounds. Off the bench, Aaron Harrison notched 24 points and three rebounds.

Josh Gray paced the Suns with 29 points, six rebounds and eight assists while Danuel House scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

The opening frame was a high-scoring affair with Reno and Northern Arizona each scoring over 30 points (39, 33 respectively) with two players for the Bighorns ending the frame with double-digits points en route to a six-point lead to start the second period.

The Suns cut their deficit to one-point by the 9:00 mark before the Bighorns extended their lead to 10 by the mid-way point of the second period after an 11-2 run triggered by a jumper from Harrison. Northern Arizona would chip away at their deficit the remainder of the frame to enter the break trailing by four points.

Coming out of the locker room, Matt Jones made a lay-up to spark a 12-5 run for Reno to give the Bighorns an 11-point lead, good for their largest of the night. Jones scored 12 points in the frame, shooting 100% from beyond-the-arc. Gray’s buzzer-beating triple would cut the Sun’s deficit to eight-points heading into the final frame trailing 103-95.

Despite the Suns outscoring the Bighorns 30-29 in the fourth quarter, Reno finished the game with a seven-point margin of victory.

--bighorns--