T-Birds' shots won't fall and neither will Boise State

BOISE — Southern Utah University had already spoiled the home openers of the University of Utah and Denver U.

Saturday night, the T-Birds were gunning for three straight, only Boise State wouldn't oblige.

Senior guard Coby Karl, a preseason all-Western Athletic Conference selection, scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half in leading the Broncos (1-1) to the 77-68 victory over the upset-minded T-Birds.

Southern Utah, which thrived on solid shooting in its first two wins, shot 47.5 percent from the field — some 10 percentage points lower than its season average.

"I just think we weren't very good offensively," SUU coach Bill Evans said. "I don't think we flowed into things very well. There was something missing. We only had eight assists, and that's not normal for us."

The Broncos, on the other hand, shot 51.7 percent from the field, including 40.7 percent from the 3-point line (11-of-27). They shot 6-of-13 from the foul line and SUU went 3-of-4, and those shots came in the final three minutes of the game.

"We were a step behind," Evans said. "I don't think we defended well at all."

Boise State's Matt Nelson led all scorers with 16 points.

Steve Barnes led SUU with 15 points. Orlando Griego and Justin Allen added 10 points each.

Southern Utah (2-1) led 10-9 with 15 minutes left in the first half, but its shooting, which had been so solid in wins over Utah and Denver, went south in a hurry.

Boise State (1-1) went on a 17-6 run over the next five minutes to lead by 10. The T-Birds went 3-for-11 from the field in that stretch, while Boise State scored on seven of its next eight possessions.

The Boise State lead quickly ballooned to as many as 17 points on a bucket by Reggie Larry with 2:48 to play in the half.

SUU scored on five of its last six possessions of the half in a 10-2 run to whittle the lead to nine at 40-31.

Southern Utah cut the lead to seven on a bucket by Griego to open the second half, but on Boise State's next trip down the floor, SUU's Nurudeen Adepoju was called for a foul, and then hit for a technical foul. Karl hit the two foul shots and then knocked down a 3-pointer and the lead was 12.

The T-Birds could not trim the Bronco lead under 10 the rest of the contest.

After Barnes cut the Boise State lead to 10 with 17:24 to play, the T-Birds went 1-for-4 and turned the ball over three times in seven trips, allowing Boise to build the lead back to 17 with 13:55 left. The lead eventually went to 19 with 9:14 remaining.

SUU cut the deficit to nine with 1:30 left on a foul shot by Swaney Cooper, but that was as a close as the T-Birds would get.

The T-Birds will play three of their next four at home beginning with their home opener against Idaho on Wednesday.

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E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com