CEDAR CITY — Nate Janes led four Thunderbirds in double figures with 21 points as Southern Utah's men's basketball team rallied to defeat Western New Mexico, 77-65, in the T-Birds' exhibition home opener Saturday night in the Centrum Arena.
SUU led by as many as nine points in the first half, but WNM stayed close and wound up taking the lead into the intermission as Mike Sells nailed a 3-pointer with five seconds remaining for a 34-33 halftime advantage.
Western extended its lead to as many as four points in the opening minutes of the second stanza as SUU came out of the break a little cold. However, the Thunderbirds warmed up in a hurry as Henry Uhegwu went up for an apparent dunk, but was pulled down by Adam Grimes, who drew an intentional foul on the play. That call sparked SUU, which went on to outscore WNM 25-10 over a span of nine minutes to erase the deficit and take its biggest lead of the game at 65-54 with 6:31 to play.
Southern Utah pushed the lead to as many as 15 points before settling for the 12-point margin.
Janes scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half to lead the rally and finished with a double-double, pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds, including eight offensive boards. Rand Janes added 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting with three 3s, while Justin Allen and Fernando Bonfim each chipped in 12.
SUU warmed up from 37.5 percent first-half shooting by hitting 16-of-33 attempts (.485) in the second frame to finish the game 43.1 percent from the floor.
Southern Utah will close out its exhibition slate this Thursday against Adams State at 7:05 p.m. at the Centrum.