CEDAR CITY, Utah, Jan. 17 ? Freshman Jake Nielson scored a career-high 21 points Saturday night, but none were bigger than his running 3-pointer at the buzzer in regulation that sent the game into overtime and allowed the Thunderbirds to come back and claim an 85-80 Summit League win over South Dakota State.
    After trailing much of the game, at times by as many as 10 points, the Thunderbirds rallied midway through the second half with a 16-5 run that took them from a 55-45 deficit to a 61-60 lead with 7:47 to play. Nielson scored 10 points during the run, including a reverse layup that gave SUU the 61-60 edge, the Thunderbirds' first lead since the 5:48 mark of the first half.
    The teams battled back and forth through the final seven minutes of regulation, but Gattet Callahan broke a 72-72 tie with a three from the top of the key with five seconds to go. Nielson drove the length of the floor, however, and hit his three as time ran out to give SUU a second life.
    The game was just as tight in overtime with neither team able to build more than a two-point margin until the final seconds. Davis Baker hit a pair of free throws to give SUU an 81-80 edge with 1:06 to go, then after a missed shot on the other end hit a jumper from the top of the key to stake the Thunderbirds to an 83-80 lead.
    With SUU applying full-court pressure Michael Palarca slipped down on the in-bounds play, turning the ball back over to SUU, which iced it when Baker was fouled and hit two free throws with seven seconds to go.
    “ We had a great effort tonight down the stretch from a true freshman,” SUU Coach Roger Reid said. “Jake [Nielson] has been coming along and tonight he really gave us a look at what the future holds. He made some big shots during our run to get back from that deficit, then he hit the biggest one to give us a chance to go into overtime and win the game.
    “We had a great team effort though,” Reid added. “John Clifford had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Davis Baker nearly had one with 22 points and nine rebounds. Tyler {Quinney] had a good game too, with 20 points and seven rebounds and I htough Cory Davis did a good job for us tonight in his first start. I thought we moved the ball well and in the second half we were able to get some rebounds at critical times and we played much better defense in the second half.
    “Of course, there aren't a lot of rebounds when you play defense like we did in the first half, when they shot 60 percent, but we were much better after halftime,” he added, pointing out that the Thunderbirds held SDSU to 44.8 percent shooting (13-of-29) in the second half and just 25 percent (2-of-8) in the overtime.
    Southern Utah wound up hitting 29-of-49 shots for its best night of the year, at 59.2 percent while SDSU wound up hitting .483 after the hot first half when the ?Jacks connected on 14-of-23. SUU also held a 35-26 rebounding advantage.
    Clint Sargent kept SDSU in the game in the second half, when he scored 21 of his game-high 24 points, hitting 5-of-7 3-point attempts. Callahan added 16 points while Williams finished with 15 points and six rebounds for the ?Jacks.
    SUU improved to 4-3 in Summit League play (6-12 overall) to maintain a share of third place in the conference standings along with Oakland, while SDSU dipped to 3-5 (8-12) but remains in sixth place.

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