SUU was supposed to be overmatched against arguably the top college basketball program in the state of Utah.

The Thunderbirds were undersized. Somebody forgot to tell SUU, however, that Utah was so much bigger. SUU out-rebounded the Utes 23-22. Tate Sorenson, the 6-foot-7 starting center, scored 13 points and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor — with a 7-1, 265-pound, NBA-bound center guarding him.

SUU shot a whopping 73.1 percent from the floor in the first half.

And how about Steve Barnes? He hits 7-of-9 shots, including a major 3-pointer to build a 4-point lead with just over two minutes left.

What does he do for an encore? He steps up and hits a 17-foot, game-winning shot in a hostile environment of Utah fans.

He was nails, tonight. Check out this line: 17 points, five assists, two steals and six rebounds. He's put on almost 20 pounds of muscle in the offseason, and you can tell.

Nurudeen Adepoju scored 16 points. He continues to impress me. He very quiety scores his points. You don't realize he is leading the team in scoring until you see the stats.

Junior Abrahao will likely be this season's Esteban Bonzano. After not playing much in his junior year, he looks like he could contribute some serious minutes off the bench.

Do they have some things to work on? Of course. They still had too many fouls, upping their total to 68 in three games.

They had seven turnovers in the first eight minutes of the second half in a long scoring drought.

But this is a promising win for SUU. If the T-Birds can beat this Utah team, they could make a run at the top three teams in the Mid-Continent Conference. If Tate Sorenson can play as well against Oral Roberts' Caleb Green as he did tonight, the T-Birds could be a factor in the Mid-Con race.

It's important for SUU to maintain this momentum with wins over Denver and Boise State. They can't let this be the highlight of the season.

But here's some food for thought: The last time SUU beat Utah? The T-Birds went to the NCAA Tournament.

— RJ