Kansas
City, Mo.
-- The UMKC men's basketball team dropped a 66-50 decision to Southern Utah on Saturday night at Municipal
Auditorium. The Kangaroos got a 20-point
performance from senior Dane Brumagin in the defeat, but that was it, as he was
the only UMKC player to score in double figures.
The action went back-and-forth to start the game as the two
teams traded leads six times in the first 13 minutes of action. SUU then build its advantage to five points
on a pair of occasions with the final coming at 23-18 with 5:46 to go in the
half.
UMKC battled back to take a 26-25 lead before Spencer
Johnson stretched the advantage to three with a short jumper at the 1:57 mark. The Thunderbirds then score the final four
points to take a 29-28 lead into the locker room.
The Kangaroos shot just .348 (8-23) from the field in the
opening half compared to .467 (14-30) for SUU.
UMKC managed to stay in the contest, however, by making all 12 of its
free throw attempts.
After both teams went scoreless over the first two and a
half minutes of the second half, Reggie Hamilton evened the tally at 29 with a
make from the charity stripe at the 17:34 mark. SUU then used an 11-3 run over
a four and a half minute span to stretch its lead to eight at 40-32.
The Kangaroos managed to pull to within six points twice
over the next two minutes, but the Thunderbirds pushed their lead to double
figures (46-36) at the 9:32 mark on a pair of Tyler Quinney free throws.
UMKC then pulled to within eight points on a Brumagin lay-up
with 7:21 left and again at the 6:14 mark via a Latreze Mushatt field
goal. SUU, however, scored eight
unanswered to build its lead to 16 (57-41) before going on to capture the 66-50
victory.
The Kangaroos shot .308 (16-52) from the field and .154
(2-13) from long range, while Southern Utah
shot .490 (24-49) from the floor and .200 (2-10) from three-point land. The T-Birds also made 16-of-18 free throw
attempts ? all of which came in the second half.
Brumagin's 20 points came on a 7-of-14 night from the floor
and a 6-of-6 performance from the free throw line. Johnson, meanwhile, grabbed a game-high 12
rebounds.
SUU's Davis Baker and Quinney combined to score 48 of the
Thunderbirds' 66 points, as both players finished with 24 points in the
contest.
UMKC (5-13, 1-4) will return to action on Thursday night
against South Dakota
State beginning at 7:05
p.m.
