Nov. 19, 2011

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LOGAN, Utah - Junior forward Kyisean Reed and freshman guard Steven Thornton each scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds off the bench to lead Utah State to a come-from-behind 65-62 home win against Southern Utah Saturday. In all, Utah State's reserves scored 31 of its 65 points in the game.

Utah State played the final 36 minutes of the contest without star forward Brady Jardine who injured his ankle early on and did not return. Jardine entered the game averaging 10.5 points and 11.0 rebounds on the year.

Utah State, who improves to 2-1 on the young season with the win, extends the third-longest home winning streak in the country to 33 in a row. USU has also won 25 straight home games against in-state opponents and 29 straight home games during the month of November.

Along with all of its home court winning streaks, Utah State also improved to 60-19 during the last 12 years following a loss as it dropped its last game at Weber State, 73-63.

Southern Utah, who is 0-6 all-time against Utah State, falls to 3-2 with the loss.

Reed, who scored all 13 of his points in the second half, was 5-of-7 from the field with three towering dunks, but was just 3-of-9 from the free throw line. Thornton, who also had an impressive dunk in the game, was 5-of-8 from the field, 2-of-4 from three-point range and 1-for-1 at the free throw line.

Senior point guard Brockeith Pane finished with 11 points for his 25th career double-figure scoring game, while sophomore redshirt guard Preston Medlin had nine points and senior forward Morgan Grim finished with eight points and five rebounds for Utah State.

Jackson Stevenett had game-highs with 19 points and seven rebounds for Southern Utah, while Matt Massey scored 16 points.

Leading 28-25 at halftime, Southern Utah began the second-half on a 9-5 run to take its largest lead of the game at 37-30 with 15:16 remaining. Utah State responded with an 8-1 run over the next 3:05 to tie it at 38-38 and USU later took its first lead of the half on a Pane jumper to make the score 42-41 with 11:23 to play.

Reed sparked Utah State's second run of the half with five consecutive points as the Aggies raced out to a 53-45 advantage with 5:14 remaining. USU took its largest lead of the game two possessions later at 57-48 on a Reed layup, but Southern Utah fought back to within one at 61-60 with 31 seconds left on the clock. From there, Utah State made 4-of-6 free throws in the final 21 seconds including a pair of free tosses from Grim following an intentional foul and the Aggies held on for the three-point win as a desperation trey from Southern Utah fell short at the buzzer.

Utah State finished the game shooting 46.3 percent (25-54), but was just 3-of-14 (.214) from three-point range and just 12-of-24 (.500) from the free throw line. Southern Utah shot 44.7 percent (21-47) for the game, including 46.2 percent from behind the arc (6-13) and 70.0 percent at the charity stripe (14-20).

Utah State out-rebounded Southern Utah by eight (36-28) including a 16-9 advantage on the offensive end. USU also had a season-low eight turnovers in the contest including none in the final 20 minutes to go along with a season-best four blocked shots.

Utah State scored six of the first eight points in the game and later led 13-6 following a three-point play from Medlin, before Southern Utah answered with an 11-2 run to take a 17-15 lead. SUU then scored four of the final five points of the half to break a 24-24 tie as it went into the locker room up 28-25.

Southern Utah shot 45.8 percent (11-24) in the first 20 minutes of play, including shooting 2-of-5 (.400) from three-point range and 4-of-7 (.571) from the free throw line. Utah State shot 45.5 percent (10-22) in the first half including 4-for-5 (.800) from the charity stripe, but was just 1-of-6 (.167) from three-point range.

Utah State returns to action on Tuesday, Nov. 22 when it plays at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 6:30 p.m. (MT) in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.