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.