Provo • BYU looked ready for a fight on Saturday night; the University of Utah did not look ready to match that intensity.
That was the story at the Marriott Center as the Cougars held off the Utes, 75-66, in front of an engaged crowd of 14,635.
The Utes (9-3) cut a 15-point second-half deficit to three with 2:46 left following a Branden Carlson layup, but BYU (8-5) finally restored some order down the other end. A 12-foot jumper from Rudi Williams with 2:22 left pushed the lead back to five. Williams finished with a game-high 26 points on 9-for-13 shooting.
Following a Gabe Madsen turnover, Dallin Hall’s 3-pointer from the left wing off a second-chance opportunity was the dagger, extended BYU to a 65-57 lead with 1:49 to play. That triple gave the Cougars 14 second-chance points of nine offensive rebounds on the night.
An early second-half war of attrition with BYU leading finally gave way to the Cougars gaining some real separation.
An uncontested Williams layup off a runout following Jaxon Robinson’s steal in the frontcourt preceded a Robinson layup off the fastbreak. That bucket gave BYU its largest lead of the evening, 54-44, with 8:11 to play, prompting a Craig Smith timeout.
After weeks of being the aggressor, or at least looking willing to answer when the opponent tried to dictate matters, Utah looked unprepared to do either, yielding 26 points in the paint on a night it managed to hold the Cougars under 30% shooting from 3-point range.
The Tribune will update this story
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/NdHaYSy
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