CEDAR CITY, Utah, Nov. 3 - Southern Utah's young men's basketball team showed flashes of what it hopes to be Tuesday night but the Thunderbirds still came up short against a veteran Mesa State team, as the Mavericks  held off a late SUU rally for a 67-64 exhibition win.

            Mesa's all-RMAC senior guard Jase Herl led all scorers with 19 points, including a layup and two free throws for the Mavericks' final points to hold off the Thunderbirds.

            Southern Utah had cut an 11-point deficit to 63-60 on a Jake Nielson 3-pointer with 2:53 to play, but Herl's layup pushed the Maverick advantage to 65-60, then after Nielson hit two free throws Herl answered with two of his own to move the margin back to five..

            Southern Utah had opportunities to cut into the lead but missed five shots in the final 1:36 until Nielson hit a layup with two seconds to play.

            "We're a young team and we showed it tonight," SUU Coach Roger Reid said. "We're going to be finding out who can play and what matchups work for us for a while, with so many young players.

            "Give Mesa State a lot of credit though," Reid added. "They hustled, got rebounds, moved the ball and out-played us. They're a very well-coached basketball team."

            Mesa State, which has seven seniors and no true freshmen on its roster, shot just 44.9 percent from the field (22-of-49) but hit 17-of-20 free throws (.850), while the Thunderbirds hit 25-of-55 shots (.455) but just 12-of-21 free throws. SUU also out-rebounded MSC 36-30.

            Matt Massey recorded a double-double in his first game back after a year-long layoff (he transferred to SUU from Nova Southeastern last year), scoring 16 points and pulling down 12 rebounds.  Senior guard Davis Baker added 16 points, while Nielson had 13 points and led the team with five steals and four assists.

-- SUU --