Brandon Better had all 15 of his points in the first half and Jadon Cohee finished with 19 as Southern Utah started fast and held on for an 81-69 win over San Jose State on Thursday night.
Better outscored the Spartans early as he drilled four from beyond the arc and converted a 3-point play to give Southern Utah a 30-14 lead with 4:10 left in the first half.
Jaycee Hillsman's 3-point play with 6:43 remaining in the game pulled the Spartans to within eight, 61-53. Cohee hit a 3 for a 74-61 lead at the 2:41 mark and Dre Marin's jumper gave the Thunderbirds a 76-63 lead with 1:22 left.
Southern Utah (1-2) made seven more from distance, hitting 29 of 64 field goals. The Spartans made 46 percent (23-50).
Volleyball
No. 8 BYU 3, San Francisco 0 • Junior outside hitter Veronica Jones-Perry led BYU to a 25-12, 25-17, 25-12 win with 19 kills, four digs and two aces. McKenna Miller added 12 kills for BYU (26-2, 15-1 West Coast Conference).
Utah Valley 3, UMKC 1 • Madison Dennison finished with 17 kills and seven blocks as the Wolverines won 24-26, 25-22, 25-20, 25-20 in the first round of the WAC tournament.
Nevada 3, Utah State 1 • Kassidy Johnson had 49 assists and eight digs for the Aggies in a 25-19, 17-25, 25-23, 28-26 loss to the Wolf Pack.
North Dakota 3, Weber State 1 • Andrea Hale had 24 kills, Amanda Varley had 15 kills and 13 digs for Weber State and Megan Gneitling added 12 kills and 12 digs in a loss in the first round of the Big Sky tournament.
Women’s basketball
SLCC 59, Odessa 44 • Bruins coach Betsy Specketer won her 499th career game as Tia Hay led SLCC (5-0) with 13 points.
Men’s basketball
SLCC 99, Lee College 62 • Christian Gray led the 7-0 Bruins with 22 points and Kur Kuath added 21 points and five rebounds for the winners.
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