Tevian Jones rallies SUU from 23-down to stun UVU in WAC semifinal

LAS VEGAS — Tevian Jones took plenty of ill-advised shots in the second half of Southern Utah's WAC semifinal game on Friday night at Orleans Arena.

His 3-pointer in the final seconds was not one of them.

Jones drained a 3-pointer — and the foul shot that ensued — to score 20 points and rally the Thunderbirds from a 23-point second-half deficit to stun Utah Valley 89-88 and advance to the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship game.

Harrison Butler scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half to go along with six rebounds and three assists for Southern Utah (22-11), and Jason Spurgin added 15 points and seven rebounds.

Cam Healy had 14 points and five assists off the bench for Southern Utah, which overcame a game-high 29 points with seven 3-pointers from UVU's Trey Woodbury to advance to face Grand Canyon at 9:30 p.m. MST with a shot at the NCAA Tournament on the line. The Thunderbirds will join their women's program, who will face California Baptist in a doubleheader at 4:30 p.m. MST.

With about eight seconds left on the clock and facing a 3-point deficit, Jones took the dribble handoff from Healy, stepped back and pulled up for a 3-pointer that dropped through the net as he heard the familiar shrill blow of a referee's whistle. A foul on the shot, an and-one play, and an incredible opportunity to rally the Thunderbirds from a deficit that stretched to 23 points with 15:42 remaining for an improbable — nay, unlikely — win.

"I was pretty aware of the clock and the situation," Jones said, describing the play. "I wanted them to face-guard me, so I was running down the court pretty fast, but it was kind of a decoy. ... It was a quick handoff. They were slow to get over, I saw my spot — my shot — I rose up, hit it, and and-one."

No doubt in his mind, and no doubt in his teammates' minds, either, Butler added.

"We call him Mike for a reason," he said of Jones, who shot 6-of-15 and had just 5 points at halftime. "He does crazy stuff all day, every day in practice. Part of me just had a feeling it was going in."

One night after surviving fellow rival Utah Tech by a point, the most unlikely of comebacks started out far from well for the Thunderbirds. Woodbury had two 3-pointers to pace a 13-1 run that propelled the Wolverines to a 38-28 advantage as Utah Valley shot 61% from the field en route to a 41-33 halftime lead.

Few could contend with SUU center Jason Spurgin, who had 10 points and two rebounds to lead the Thunderbirds in the first half. That included UVU's 7-foot center Aziz Bandaogo, who had 6 points and two rebounds at the break. Bandaogo finished with 12 points and six rebounds, and Justin Harmon added 13 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Wolverines (25-8).

But Woodbury similarly scorched the perimeter, converted on 6-of-8 first-half field goals that included 4-of-6 from 3-point range to go along with four rebounds and two assists in 17 minutes.

Harmon scored 7 points out of the break as the Wolverines' hot shooting continued, and the No. 2 seed pushed the lead as high as 23 with a stretch that included Bandaogo's dunk with 13:51 remaining.

That's when SUU launched a full-court press, forced a handful of turnovers, and capped a 12-4 run to pull within 11 points with 9:57 showing.

Dee Barnes provided another spark and capped a run of three-straight makes with a breakaway dunk to cut the deficit inside single digits, 79-71, with 4:41 to go, then all the way back on Butler's 3-pointer to cut it down to 82-77 two minutes later.

Utah Valley coach Mark Madsen, for his part, took the loss squarely on his shoulders. He didn't prepare his team well enough for the press, he said, and used up his timeouts too early.

"This game is on me," Madsen said while seated next to a heroic-but-crushed Woodbury and Harmon after the game. "In retrospect, I used my timeouts too soon."

The strange, weird and often funky full-court press, though, was also on the Thunderbirds.

"We had that press in the bag. We worked on it, and it's been really good for us," said SUU coach Todd Simon, whose team is one win away from its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2001. "We haven't used it a lot — probably more than we should, on further review — but we've had tremendous leadership. Those guys are over there gassing the bench up, and at one point Harrison said, 'we're not losing.' That affirmation from everyone was tremendous.

Butler made it a one possession game with a free throw at the 1:43 mark, and Jones' contribution capped a 7-0 run with a dunk to pull within 1 point with a minute remaining. But Woodbury wouldn't let the Wolverines quit and hit a jumper, then found a cutting Harmon to restore the 86-81 lead with 36 seconds left.

But things were just getting started.

Maizen Fausett and Healy drove into the paint on back-to-back possessions. Darthard made a pair of free throws to push UVU's edge to 88-85, Jones hit his iconic 3-point shot and the game-winning free throw, and sent the Thunderbirds into the most unlikely of WAC Tournament championship games in their first year in the league.

"The first few minutes weren't our best, so I knew these guys would follow my energy," Butler said. "Even if I missed a shot, if I did it with a lot of energy, these guys would follow. my lead. ... Whatever it takes to get it done."

With the loss, the Wolverines — who clinched an outright regular-season league championship but were the No. 2 seed based on the WAC resume seeding system — fall back on the NIT automatic bid clinched by the conference's regular-season champion. Some mystery surrounded whether UVU or Sam Houston State, the resume seeding champion who took the No. 1 seed into this week's tournament, would earn the berth.

But Madsen all-but confirmed that the Wolverines would accept the program's first NIT bid since 2014.

"Give credit to Southern Utah; they battled back," the former Stanford star and NBA veteran said. "We were back 20; they battled back. We made a few too many mistakes in the press. ... I'm proud of the season that we had. I'm proud of every young man in our locker room. It's obviously not the ending that we wanted … but we'll learn from it."

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