Lady T-Birds Picked Ninth in Summit League Preseason Poll

Women's Basketball 2/9/2008 7:00:00 AM Southern Utah Athletics

Southern Utah Women Hold on for 51-49 Victory over UMKC

CEDAR CITY, Utah - Feb. 9 - Southern Utah women's basketball had a double-digit lead over UMKC as late as 6:55 in the second half and held onto a lead down the stretch for a 51-49 victory over the Kangaroos on Saturday night. The win improves the Thunderbirds to 6-17 on the year and 4-8 in The Summit League. UMKC falls to 9-14 and 2-10 in conference play.

"Everybody who took to the floor tonight played hard," freshman Jamie Sagers said. "Our bench helped us out a lot with their energy and we really worked together to get some open looks."

Southern Utah opened the half with a strong effort, building its first double-digit lead of the game (17-6) with 10:15 on the clock. The teams then encountered a dry spell for three minutes until a free throw by Hailee Truman and a 3-point field goal by Aubrey Mackintosh extended the SUU lead to 21-8 with 7:09 remaining in the half.

UMKC countered with its first run of the game, trimming the deficit to ten (21-11), but Southern Utah echoed the charge and built the lead back to 15 (26-11) with 3:00 on the clock. The Kangaroos ended the scoring of the first half on a Kalei Nance jumper and 3-point bucket by Sierra Radke to make the score at the intermission 26-16.

Southern Utah maintained its double-digit lead through the first five minutes of the second half, until two Radke free throws at 14:46 trimmed the advantage to single digits (29-21) for the first time since 11:35 in the first half.

The Thunderbirds countered with a 7-2 run over the next minute and a half to extend the lead to 36-23, capped by a Jamie Sagers 3-point bomb. SUU carried an 11-point lead with seven minutes remaining, but the difference was quickly whittled to three points with 1:46 on the clock, following an 11-4 run by the Kangaroos.

Caitlyn Sears put the Thunderbirds back up five with back-to-back free throws with 31 seconds in the game. UMKC then scored a 3-point basket in the strangest play of the game as the Kangaroos fielded six players on the court at the same time. The obvious faux pax was missed by the officials as Brittny Picconi drained the long-range bucket from the corner and then stepped non-challantly off the court.

Despite the six-player advantage on the play, Southern Utah hung on as Anne Westwood connected on 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch to seal the 51-49 victory for the Thunderbirds.

"I had been struggling with my free throws coming into the game," Westwood said of her thoughts at the line. "But, I had confidence in my shot today and wanted to go to the line in that kind of clutch situation.

"This will give us some good momentum as we finish out the conference season," she continued. "We just need these kind of victories to carry over for us on the road. When we are playing well, we can play with anybody."

Sagers led all scorers with a career-high 13 points and five rebounds. She also added three blocks on the night to fill out the box score. Westwood and Aubrey Mackintosh joined Sagers in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Alysa Klein led the Kangaroos in scoring with 11 points followed by Kalei Nance with 10.

Southern Utah will remain at home next weekend as the Thunderbirds host Summit League newbies North Dakota State on Feb. 16 and South Dakota State on Feb. 18.

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Players Mentioned

#14 Aubrey Mackintosh: G/F; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#20 Jamie Sagers: F/C; 6' 5"; Freshman

#32 Caitlyn Sears: G/F; 5' 10"; Freshman

#31 Hailee Truman: F; 6' 0"; Junior

#21 Anne Westwood Higbee: F/C; 6' 1"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#14 Aubrey Mackintosh
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: G/F

#20 Jamie Sagers
: 6' 5"; Freshman
: F/C

#32 Caitlyn Sears
: 5' 10"; Freshman
: G/F

#31 Hailee Truman
: 6' 0"; Junior
: F

#21 Anne Westwood Higbee
: 6' 1"; Junior
: F/C