CEDAR CITY - With University of Missouri-Kansas City's women looking to ruin a certain Southern Utah win in the Centrum Arena on Saturday night, the T-Birds found a measure of quiet-calm to be their best counter punch.
With freshmen continuing to play a key role, the T-Birds hit 12-of-14 foul shots in the second half 5-of-6 in the final 30 seconds to hold a hard-fought 51-49 Summit League victory.
Freshman Jamie Sagers scored 13 points to lead a balanced SUU attack. Anne Westwood scored 11 points while Aubrey Mackintosh added 10 and Challis Pascucci scored nine for the T-Birds (6-17, 4-8 Summit League). The outcome marked a stark contrast from the Kangaroos' 80-48 blowout win over SUU in Kansas City on Jan. 12.
"Home court gives you some difference, but doesn't give you 34 (points)," SUU coach Steve Hodson said. "You can see how far we've come in executing on both ends of the floor. We've got a lot of players trying to figure out our complicated defensive system. We held our composure. That shows the development of our young team."
The 6-foot-5 Sagers led the T-Birds' 15-2 charge over a seven-minute stretch in the first half, scoring seven points during the run that pushed SUU to a 21-6 lead. Caitlyn Sears' 3-pointer and Anne Westwood's third bucket of the half kept the T-Birds ahead at the break, 26-16.
"If you're going to shoot, you got to shoot to make it," Sagers said. "I thought we took it to them and played like we know how. It's fun to be able to help my team win."
Sagers' second 3-pointer seven minutes into the second half shot the T-Birds' lead to 36-23. Another Sagers' trey two minutes later pushed SUU's lead to 39-27 and the T-Birds kept their lead near double figures until the final four minutes of the contest.
Mackintosh's 3-pointer during UMKC's 11-3 run kept the T-Birds in the lead at 46-43. Sears hit two free throws with 30 seconds left that gave SUU breathing room at 48-43, but UMKC's Brittny Picconi bombed in a 3 from the corner that drew the Kangaroos within 48-46.
Fouled immediately on UMKC's full-court press, Westwood calmly sank two free throws with 18.7 seconds left to push the T-Birds' lead back to 50-46. Picconi nailed another 3-pointer from the corner with eight seconds remaining to shave SUU's lead to 50-49.
"They made some shots to cut the gap," Hodson said. "Our composure at the foul line was big."
The T-Birds averted a turnover on a long inbounds pass and escaped with the win after Westwood hit one of two free throws. SUU's defense didn't give the Kangaroos a clean look at the basket as time expired.
"Tonight we managed to have good possessions and get fouled," Hodson added. "We did some good things defensively that helped. Offensively we didn't turn the ball over."
Alysa Klein led UMKC with 11 points and Kalie Nance added 10. SUU held UMKC's Chazny Morris, who averaged 17.7 points per game entering the contest, to just six points on 2-of-16 shooting.
Despite their late flurry, the Kangaroos shot only 29.5 percent (1
f-61) from the field while the T-Birds shot 32 percent (16-of-50).
"Just step up our defense," Sagers said. "We wanted to get stops."
