Southern Utah lost Thursday night to the Southern District Spartans, 106-84, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Spartans raced out to a 14-1 lead before Matt Hodgson scored inside and the Thunderbirds cut the lead to 25-17. The T-Birds had trailed by as many as 16 early in the game. SUU couldn't get any closer than eight and trailing 60-42 in the 3rd quarter, saw the Spartans score 17 straight points to take total control of the game 77-42.

The Thunderbirds continued to battle with the experienced Spartans and got back to within 20 late in the games fourth quarter. The Spartans scored inside and out and played solid defense to grab control of the game in the first half. Jackson Stevenette scored 11 first half points for SUU.

Southern Utah will close out its four game Australian Tour Friday night with another game in the Brisbane area...a 7:30 start..3:30 Friday morning in Cedar City.

Koala, Cockatoo and Alma Bay

A sleepy Koala Bear on Magnetic Island on a walk we took to find a creature just like this!













Alma Bay on Magnetic Island while we were touring the island on Tuesday, May 11th. It is a gorgeous place. Some of the group even got in the water for a little dip in their "swimmers."










A Cockatoo on the beach on Magnetic Island...this was at horshoe bay I think. He was not in a hurry to get going...probably hoping for a snack!

Group photo at the Hodgson's home on Wednesday afternoon after our arrival from Townsville to Booval by air and bus. It was a great feast at the Hodgson's and you can see most of our group with them in this photo.










On the patio at Hodgson's home in Booval. Shown left to right...Terri Cook, Todd Brown and Mike Benson.













Here is our chef!! Great steaks on the barbee!! Vicki and I think he looks like George Clooney. His wife must have worked for days on the food and of course with his help!! Thanks to the Hodgson's for a great time!!

Kerry Heiur and Vicki Challis at Alma Bay near the Heuir home on Magnetic Island on Tuesday, May 11. We spotted Kerry at a coffee shop on the island and she joined our tour and took us Koala Bear hunting. We saw two Koala's in trees on our walk in the Australian "Bush" or least amongst the bushes.

In the lower photo, left to right,
Robyn Brown, Diane Reid, Karen Carling, Kerry Heuir, Pres. Michael Benson and Debi Benson. This photo looks out over Alma Bay on Magnetic Island.

Townsville, Queensland, Australia: Southern Utah led most of the game but fell 76-71 on Tuesday night to the Townsville Heat. SUU led 60-53 in the 4th quarter but Chris Cedar scored 18 of his game leading 26 points from that point on to grab the victory for the Heat. Daniel Egan had 21 points and 13 rebounds in the game for the Heat scoring mostly in the first half. Cedar scored 16 of the Heat's first 18 fourth quarter points.

SUU was led by Matt Hodgson with 18 points, while Matt Massey had 14 and both players had double-doubles with 11 rebounds each. Damon Heuir playing before his hometown fans had 14 points and 6 assists while Jordan Weirick scored 14 points, most of them coming in the first half. Jackson Stevenette had 6 and Ryan Brimley 5.

The lead in the game changed hands 16 times and the game was tied 9 different times. Egan and Cedar combined for 47 of Townsville's 76 total. Coach Roger Reid felt like his team played hard and just couldn't stop the talented duo of Egan and Cedar. SUU led 43-36 at the half and 56-53 at the end of 3 quarters.

Thursday night at 7:30, SUU will take on the Southern District Spartans near Brisbane.

Cairns, Australia:

Matt Massey led Southern Utah to an 81-65 victory over the Cairns Marlins Sunday afternoon in Queensland State, Australia. Massey from Brisbane, scored 21 points to pace the Thunderbirds and Damon Heuir of Townsville, Australia added 14. SUU opened its Australian four game basketball trip with the win after breaking a 37-37 tie with just over three minutes to go in the first half. SUU led at halftime 46-40 and 63-56 after 3 quarters and built the lead to 16 at the final buzzer.

Coach Roger Reid was pleased with the effort of his players. He praised the Thunderbirds for their unselfish play and he said, "they all played hard in this game." He added that "this has been a great experience for our basketball team," to this point. The T-birds have three more games in Australia before returning to the USA next Sunday.

SUU will meet Townsville on Tuesday night. For the Cairns Marlins Deba George had 24 points
and Dwayne Vale scored 18 in the loss. Cairns was the 2009 Queensland champion. No one else had more than 7.

SUU used good inside play by Massey and 6-11 Matt Hodgson of Booval, Australia to control the boards and the T-birds played good overall team defense in the win. Ryan Brimley joined four Thunderbirds in double figures with 13 and Hodgson scored 12. Jordan Weirick had 8. Brimley hit key buckets and scored 11 of his points in the first quarter and Weirick had two 3"s in the 3rd quarter. SUU's largest lead was 9 in the first half.

The game was played at the Bendigo Bank Basketeball Centre in Cairns.

Yesterday we went to Green Island. The Island was named after Captain Cooks astronomer. Even though the island is green...it was the astronomer's name they used. It is about a 45 mile boat ride from Cairns. We spent the day from 8:30 to about 4 or so on the island and traveling back and forth. The player went snorkeling and some saw a large water snake...others claimed to ride on turtles backs. You can walk across the island in about 10 minutes. We took a glass bottom boat ride to see the section of the Great Barrier Reef off of Green Island...incredible!

Today, it was off to the zoo to see the crocs, lemurs, kangaroos and yes even feed the kangaroos...also saw a bird show and got great photos of the Koala's. Now we are back at the hotel, the Shangri-la here in Cairns awaiting this afternoons game with Cairns the 2009 ABA champions from Queensland state. The game starts at 5 p.m. here...1 a.m. early Sunday morning in Utah.
We will hopefully get a report on Power 91 after the game and you can read details here on the blog and on the SUU website courtesy of Neil Gardner.

We made it to Australia after 29 hours of total travel time. After flying from LA to Sydney we had a flight to Cairns, in Queensland state. The Thunderbirds will play the Cairns Marlins of the Australia Basketball Association (ABA) on Sunday at 5 p.m. Australian time. We practiced at the site of the game at 4:30 Friday afternoon and then were on our own to find something good to eat and we did!! We tried to stay awake so we could sleep at night after our arrival here in Cairns just after noon on Friday the 7th of May...we lost one day by crossing the international dateline!

Everyone made it through customs fine, which is good and the starlings were making tons of noise last night at dusk...we also saw some large bats flying around and sitting in trees. Today it is off to Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef for site seeing and even some snorkeling for the more adventuresome of the group.

I found some newspapers from Melbourne and Sydney at the Sydney airport on Friday and the sports pages were full of football news (Australian style) soccer and cricket and the upcoming games this weekend. Found a small blurb with major league baseball scores and the upcoming NBA playoff games. On television last night the Atlanta-Orlando game was on at about 8 p.m. here...We are ahead of those of you in America by 16 hours...it is 6 a.m. now here in Cairns...It is very beautiful and green. Cairns is a city of about 140 thousand people and is a huge tourist area because of the barrier reef and the islands available to visit.

Power 91 in Cedar City will carry recorded sports reports on the games that I will send back from Australia..and hopefully some interviews with coaches and players. The Thunderbirds are taking 9 players and three of them are from Australia and will get to play against teams from their homeland!! I talked to Coach Reid today and he got a haircut at Holmes Barber Shop today as did I. I guess I will have to take a shot of my new haircut and post it. President Benson and Provost Cook are traveling along with the Thunderbirds as are Sports Information Director Neil Gardner and Trainer Ricky Mendini to mention a few of the party facing the 15 plus flight from Los Angeles to Sidney, Australia.

Southern Utah University is traveling to Australia to play four games beginning on the 9th of May. The first game is in Cairns, Australia...I will provide information about the games and hopefully photos of the Thunderbirds is action against each of the teams SUU will play. Other games are on the 11th, the 13th and the 14th. I might add some photos of a tour to Green Island, zoos and other sightseeing along the way.