Men's basketball roundup: Rough second half dooms SUU

CEDAR CITY — Alex Young scored 22 points and IUPUI transformed a three-point halftime deficit into a 13-point victory over Southern Utah, 66-53, on Saturday night.

IUPUI (11-16, 5-10 Summit League) captured the lead permanently, 38-37, on a layup by Stephen Thomas with 16:13 to play. The Jaguars keyed a 10-3 run three minutes later for a 52-42 lead with 7:28 remaining.

Southern Utah (13-13, 8-8), which led by as many as six in the first half, shot just 3 of 12 (25 percent) on 3-pointers. Jackson Stevenett led the Thunderbirds with 13 points and Ray Jones Jr. contributed 11 with five assists. Jones had seven assists in his last outing against Southern Utah, which was a 72-64 win for the Thunderbird.

Ian Chiles added 14 points for the Jaguars, who made it to the free-throw line 29 times, converting 23 of those opportunities for a 79.3 percent clip.

UTAH VALLEY 66, CHICAGO STATE 61: At Chicago, the Wolverines roared back from a 14-point second-half deficit behind 15 second-half points from Isiah Williams and 11 second-half points by Holton Hunsaker.

Williams, a Chicago native, went 0-of-10 from the first half, but went 5-of-8 from the field, including 3-of-5 from the 3-point line in the second half.

UVU (17-10, 7-0 GWC) entered the game with the nation's eighth-longest winning streak and have now won a school-record 10 straight games.

The Wolverines trailed by 12 at the half after shooting just 24.2 percent, but answered with 61.9 percent shooting from the field in the second half.

"Fortunately we fought through it," UVU head coach Dick Hunsaker said. "Everybody contributed in this game, especially in the second half."

Hunsaker led the Wolverines with 16 points, while Williams finished with 15. Ben Aird chipped in with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Chicago State's Matt Samuels led all scorers with 19 points.

For the second time this year, the Wolverines came back from a halftime deficit to beat the Cougars.

Utah Valley led only twice early in the game before Chicago State (3-22, 1-6) began pulling away.

Hunsaker gave the Wolverines a 5-3 lead with a 3-pointer with 18:08 to play in the half, and Geddes Robinson hit a jumper to give the Wolverines the 7-5 lead two minutes later.

After Utah Valley tied the game at nine, the Cougars went on a 6-0 run to lead 15-9 with 12:13 to go.

With 7:31 left the Cougars capped a 10-0 run to lead by 12.

The Wolverines answered with a modest 6-0 run on buckets by Aird, Hunsaker and Zach Jones to whittle the lead to six with 4:35 left, but that was as close as the Wolverines would get the rest of the half.

Chicago State ended the half with an 8-2 run to lead by 12 at the break at 35-23.

The Wolverines shot just 24.2 percent from the field, including just 3-of-15 from behind the arc, while Chicago State shot 55.2 percent.

Samuels led the Cougars with 11 points in the half, and Jeremy Robinson, the Great West Conference's leading scorer, added nine.

Alfonzo Hubbard came off the bench and led the Wolverines with eight points in the first half.

Chicago State took its halftime lead to a game-high 14 points with a bucket to open the half before Utah Valley began cutting away at the lead.

With his team trailing by 13 with 17:16 left, Williams drilled a 3-pointer to begin a 10-0 run to cut the lead to three at 41-38 with just under 15 minutes to play.

Two minutes later, Robinson converted a three-point play and the Wolverines were within two, 43-41.

The Wolverines finally tied the score at 43 with 11:13 left on a layup by Aird.