Utah Utes basketball: Tigers tamed by Utah

With 30 NBA scouts on hand at the Huntsman Center Tuesday night, Nevill hit 11 of 13 shots and scored 23 points to help the Utes to a 91-61 victory over an LSU team that was 12-1 coming into the game.

Nevill seemed to score at will all night, but he had plenty of help in the Utes' fourth straight victory, which lifted them to 10-5 on the season. Carlon Brown scored 17 points and Luke Drca and Shaun Green each added 13 as the Utes shot a season-best 63.5 percent from the field.

"It was a quality win for us against a very good team," said Utah coach Jim Boylen, who credited his team's defense, which held the Tigers to 33.3 percent shooting and superior rebounding (37-29 for Utah).

The 30-point thrashing spoiled a homecoming of sorts for LSU first-year coach Trent Johnson, who was a Ute assistant from 1986-89. Johnson said coming back was nothing special ("that was 20 years ago") and he seemed a little embarrassed by his team's performance.

"They were better," Johnson said. "They were better in the post and better off the dribble. They played extremely well.

We're a lot better than we showed, make no mistake about it."

Nevill was coming off a 29-point, 13-rebound performance against Wyoming when the Cowboys played Nevill straight up, rather than double-teaming him as many opponents have done.

However, for much of the game, the Tigers opted to play Nevill one-on-one and he burned their skinny 6-foot-11, 210-pound senior center Chris Johnson by backing him down for easy hooks and dunks.

Nevill said afterward he was surprised that he didn't see more double teams from the Tigers.

"I'm used to being double-teamed, especially when I start scoring in the block," he said. "No one came with no help so I just went to work."

When coach Johnson was asked why his team didn't try to double-team Nevill more, he said, "You've got to pick your poison. We covered down on him, we doubled him ... heck when we doubled him and went to a zone, that's when they blew us out in the second half."

That's true. When Nevill scored his last basket of the game on a follow shot with 15:25 left, the Utes led 57-44. From there, the Utes outscored the Tigers 34-17 as several different Utes got in the act.

Brown scored eight points in a five-minute span, on three drives and a pair of free throws and when Drca hit a 3-pointer with 6:03 left, the Ute lead had ballooned to 28 at 77-49.

"We talked about rebounding and defending and not turning the ball over to have a chance to win this game," said Boylen. "I thought our defense was outstanding — Lawrence Borha, Drca, Luke, Kim Tillie and Shaun Green ... Our goal was to hold them to 35 percent and we held them to 33 and our goal was to hold them to 38 from the three and we held them to 36."

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