PROVO, Utah, Dec. 21 ? Geoff Payne and Davis Baker each scored 15 points and Southern Utah limited Trent Plaisted and Lee Cummard, to 11 and 12 points, respectively, but Jonathan Tavernari came off the bench to score 19 points as Brigham Young held off the Thunderbirds, 70-55, Friday night.
“I'm very proud of the effort our guys put out tonight,” SUU Coach Roger Reid said. “We battled hard against a team with some great athletes. I can't fault our effort tonight at all but I am disappointed we didn't take advantage of some opportunities we were presented.
“We missed some open shots when we had a chance to make some things happen late in the game,” he added. “We were within 10 with about five minutes to go and we all know a game isn't over when you're within 10 at that point in the game but we weren't able to make a basket at key times and that hurt us.”
Southern Utah stayed close through most of the first half but BYU went on a 9-0 run to take a 28-15 lead with 2:58 to play in the period. Sam Burgess hit a 3-pointer and a layup and Plaisted and Cummard both scored in the paint to lift BYU to the 13-point advantage.
SUU battled back within 28-21 aftrer Dave Marek hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds to play in the half but Archie Rose hit a buzzer-beating three of his own to give BYU a 31-21 lead at the break.
SUU cut its deficit to eight points several times in the second half but could not get any closer.
Brigham Young wound up shooting .553 (26-47) from the floor while limiting Southern Utah to a 37.5 percent (21-56) night, including a 26.7 effort (4-of-15) from 3-point range. Baker hit all but one of SUU's 3-pointers while Marek added another.
As it has all year, SUU did a good job rebounding the ball, pulling down 33 caroms to 34 for the bigger Cougars. It is only the second time this year SUU has been outrebounded.

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