Weber goes for long shots to beat SUU

CEDAR CITY — John Hamilton and Nic Sparrow combined to hit 12 3-pointers and scored 22 points apiece Tuesday night as Weber State used the long ball to get past Southern Utah, 82-68. The Wildcats hit a total of 13 3-pointers and scored just seven baskets in the paint but still managed to shoot .529 percent from the floor, including .650 percent from long-range (13-20).

Southern Utah led 6-3 early and held an 11-7 lead with 16:00 to play in the first period, but Sparrow hit a free throw and the first of his five treys to tie the game at 11. Patrick Danley scored inside for the Wildcats to give them a 13-11 lead, then Hamilton hit the first of his seven threes to give WSU a 16-11 lead and SUU never led again. The Wildcats pushed their lead as high as 13 before taking a 44-33 lead into halftime.

SUU cut the deficit to 44-35 after DeAngelo Newsom scored inside to open the half, but Hamilton then hit a pair of threes around a Robbie Warren layup and Sparrow hit another trey to push the WSU advantage to 53-37. SUU chipped away, cutting the deficit to 57-50 on a David Palmer layup and then to 60-55 on a Vaughn Schouten put-back with 9:52 to play. The Wildcats slowly pulled away, however, outscoring the Thunderbirds 17-4 over the next 4:30.

"We got outplayed tonight, outplayed and out-coached," SUU Coach Bill Evans said. "They took us right out of what we wanted to do offensively and we quit running our offense, quit throwing it inside. Give them a lot of credit, but we didn't get the kind of effort we need to have to win games against good teams like this."

Newsom led Southern Utah with 16 points and led the team with six rebounds, but WSU out-rebounded the Thunderbirds 33-20. Jason Baker added 12 points and Palmer finished with 10.

WSU improved to 3-1, notching its first road win of the season and its eighth-straight, dating back to last season, while SUU saw its record evened at 2-2.

IDAHO STATE 98, SOUTHERN UTAH 65: At Cedar City, Idaho State raced out to a big first half lead and never looked back as the Bengals handed Southern Utah's women's basketball team its first loss of the season, 98-65, Tuesday night in Cedar City. The loss, SUU's worst home loss since the 1996-97 season when UC Santa Barbara took a 103-72 decision at the Centrum, dropped the Thunderbirds to 3-1 on the season, while ISU improved to 4-1.

The Bengals bolted past a sluggish SUU squad to a quick 20-5 lead in the first five minutes of play, thanks in part to the hot shooting hand of guard Christa Brossman, who scored 25 of her game-high 31 points in the first half to help lead ISU to a 52-27 halftime advantage. The Bengals pushed that lead to as many as 36 points in the second half before settling for the 33-point spread.