It wasn’t pretty but the Utes got the win over UVU on Tuesday night at the Huntsman Center. The Utes were led by Timmy Allen’s 19 points and six boards, while Branden Carlson had 14 points, and Alphonso Plummer and Rylan Jones also had 12 points in the 75-67 win.
For stretches of the game it looked like Utah was going to run away and hide from UVU. Utah’s offense was moving the ball well, and while UVU was hitting shots, they were getting enough stops to build a solid double digit lead over the Wolverines. Fortunately for the Utes, they forced UVU into 20 turnovers, which they scored 26 points off of, while only giving up eight of their own.
Things got really tight late in the second half, as UVU cut a once 15 point lead down to just a bucket with about three minutes left in the game. Utah was dominated by the UVU bigs, especially Evan Cole who had 31 points. He attacked Utah in that second half, and Utah just couldn’t slow him down. He was attacking from all three levels, posting up, driving, and he hit some threes.
Utah’s offense did stagnate a bit in that second half at times, but it was the defense that was the big issue. They gave up 51% shooting on the game, while giving up 57% in that second half. When they built that 15 point lead, it was just matador defense from that point on. Rylan Jones went into attack mode when the game started to get tight, and he made multiple drives to the hoop for layups to keep UVU at bay.
Now Utah will turn to Idaho, who will be coming to the Huntsman Center on Friday.