SUU earns hoop victory

CEDAR CITY — DeAngelo Newsom scored 21 points and Jason Baker added 14 as Southern Utah took a 69-51 exhibition victory from Division II Western State College Thursday night.

SUU never trailed in the game but the pesky Mountaineers stayed within striking distance through the first 35 minutes before the Thunderbirds pulled away.

Southern Utah took a 38-24 lead on a Curtis Lincoln dunk with 2:37 to play in the first half, but SUU went cold and Ryan Jobe hit a pair of treys to pull WSC within 38-30 at the half.

In the second half WSC cut the deficit to two points, at 41-39 on a Matt Klieforth jumper with 15:49 to play. Although that was as close as they would get they didn't go away, staying within five until Newsom scored seven points and dished out an assist in a 13-0 game-ending run.

"I saw some things I liked but I saw more things I didn't like," SUU coach Bill Evans said. "As a team we have to do all the little things it takes to win basketball games. We have the intangibles but we need to use them and tonight I didn't think we did."

Southern Utah shot 58.1 percent from the floor in the second half to finish with a 53.6 effort (30-56) while holding WSC to just 43.5 percent shooting (20-46) but the Thunderbirds out-rebounded the smaller Mountaineers by just a 29-28 margin. SUU had 13 steals and WSC had 10 but the Mountaineers finished with 20 turnovers to 14 for SUU. SUU also tallied 24 assists, led by Steve Barnes' five.

Southern Utah opens the season against Montana-Western on Nov. 19. Western State plays at Utah on Saturday.