Barnes answers plea, leads T-Birds to victory

CEDAR CITY — Southern Utah University basketball coach Bill Evans delivered a halftime challenge to point guard Steve Barnes to make something happen in the second half, and he expected nothing less.

The senior guard, who leads the team in scoring, responded to the call in leading the T-Birds to a 68-65 victory over Western Illinois here Thursday night.

The T-Birds trailed by seven points with 8:48 left and they completed the comeback on a 3-pointer by Barnes with 1:47 left for their second straight Mid Continent Conference victory.

Barnes scored nine of his 15 points in the second half.

"He's a good player and good players did what Steve Barnes did," Evans said. "That's what they're supposed to do."

Barnes, however, wouldn't have been in that position if it wasn't for Swaney Cooper, who scored a career-high 17 points, pulled down a career-high eight rebounds and tied a career-high with three blocked shots.

None was bigger than his block of a 3-point attempt with less than 30 seconds left that could have given the Leathernecks the lead.

David Marek, who is 11 for 11 from the foul line this year, played just 3.7 seconds. He came off the bench and drained two foul shots with 13.3 left to give the T-Birds a three-point advantage.

The Leathernecks, losers of 11 straight, got a shot off at the buzzer. But if it would have gone in, it wouldn't have mattered because it was a two-point attempt.

With the victory, the T-Birds improve to 13-8 overall and 3-3 in Mid Continent Conference play, while the Leathernecks fall to 4-17 and 0-6 in league play.

After missing its first two shots of the game, Western Illinois hit its next seven to take a 14-3 lead with 14:56 left in the first half. The T-Birds missed their first seven shots and made one of two from the foul line before hitting their first field goal — a driving lay-up by Barnes — at the 15:22 mark.

"We couldn't hit a shot at first and they came out and played well and gave us a tough game," Barnes said. "They came out tough, ready to go, and we didn't. Once we got rolling we were okay."

After going 0-for-7, the T-Birds hit 12 of their next 18 shots, while the Leathernecks went more than five minutes without a field goal.

The T-Birds took their first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by Nurudeen Adepoju at the 3:49 mark, and after four more ties or lead changes, they took a 34-32 halftime lead on a jumper by Barnes.