Nov. 16, 2017
Cedar City, Utah --- The San José State men's basketball team got 21 points from Ryan Welage and 18 points from Jaycee Hillsman, but it wasn't enough in an 81-69 loss on the road at Southern Utah.
The Spartans shot 28.0 percent (7-25) and committed 11 turnovers in the opening period, allowing the Thunderbirds to jump out to a 16-point lead. Southern Utah wasn't much better, hitting 10-of-34 shots (29.4 percent) in the first half, but SUU's Brandon Better got the better of SJSU scoring 15 points.
After trailing 32-20 at halftime, Hillsman came out and scored seven quick points for the Spartans. Part of the burst was a traditional three-point play which the Spartans had a handful of to keep themselves in the hunt down the stretch.
Another one came at the 12:02 mark when Welage went to the rim and hit a layup while being fouled. He knocked down the free throw which made it 49-41. It was the first of three times SJSU cut the lead down to eight in the second half.
Dre Marin buried a 3-pointer on the next Southern Utah possession and after a Spartan turnover the Thunderbirds pushed the lead back to 15 points with a layup.
Hillsman struck again with an and-1 and Welage popped a jumper on back-to-back possessions to make it 63-55 with 6:26 to go. But in a snap SUU pushed it right back to a 12-point lead with consecutive layups.
For as bad as the teams were shooting in the first half, both squads were over 60 percent in the final 20 minutes.
Despite winning the battle on the boards by nine, the Spartans finished the game with 22 turnovers to Southern Utah's eight. The Thunderbirds turned those into 20 points on the other end.
Oumar Barry joined Welage and Hillsman in double-figure scoring with 10 points. Believe it or not Better only played five minutes in the second half for SUU, but his running mates Jadon Cohee and Musoko ended the game with 19 and 10 points respectively.
The Spartans return home to face #22-Saint Mary's on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. (PT).
Newspaper Box Score
San Jose State vs Southern Utah
11/16/17 6:30 PM at Cedar City, UT
At Cedar City, UT
SOUTHERN UTAH 81, SAN JOSE STATE 69
SAN JOSE STATE (1-2)
Welage,Ryan 8-13 5-7 21; Hillsman,Jaycee 5-10 8-8 18; Barry,Oumar 3-5 3-6
10; Nichols,Isaiah 2-3 3-4 7; James,Jalen 2-6 2-2 6; Fisher,Keith 2-2 0-1 4;
Baumann,Noah 1-5 0-0 3; Singer,Ryan 0-1 0-0 0; Simmons,Caleb 0-1 0-0 0;
Chastain,Ashtin 0-4 0-1 0; Parilla,Ryan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-50 21-29 69.
SOUTHERN UTAH (1-2)
Cohee,Jadon 5-13 8-9 19; Better,Brandon 5-10 1-1 15; Musoko,Christian 4-5
2-2 10; Marin,Dre 2-4 3-5 8; Jackson,Jamil 4-6 0-0 8; Madunic,Ivan 3-5 0-0
7; Calloway,Jacob 3-7 0-0 7; McGee,James 2-11 0-0 5; Aytes,Jamal 1-3 0-0 2.
Totals 29-64 14-17 81.
San Jose State................ 20 49 - 69
Southern Utah................. 32 49 - 81
3-point goals--San Jose State 2-8 (Barry,Oumar 1-1; Baumann,Noah 1-2;
James,Jalen 0-2; Simmons,Caleb 0-1; Hillsman,Jaycee 0-1; Welage,Ryan 0-1),
Southern Utah 9-31 (Better,Brandon 4-7; Madunic,Ivan 1-3; Cohee,Jadon 1-4;
Marin,Dre 1-3; McGee,James 1-8; Calloway,Jacob 1-5; Jackson,Jamil 0-1).
Fouled out--San Jose State-None, Southern Utah-Aytes,Jamal. Rebounds--San
Jose State 40 (Welage,Ryan 7; Nichols,Isaiah 7), Southern Utah 31
(Madunic,Ivan 8). Assists--San Jose State 6 (Hillsman,Jaycee 3), Southern
Utah 15 (Marin,Dre 7). Total fouls--San Jose State 21, Southern Utah 24.
Technical fouls--San Jose State-None, Southern Utah-None. A-1515