From Deseret News archives:
Red-letter day Utes overcome horrid start to beat Cougars
Oh, and it turned out to be a pretty good ball game, considering that everyone assumed the league champion Utes would steamroll over the Cougars, who had embarrassingly lost their last two games by a combined total of 50 points.
The Utes spotted the Cougars a large first-half lead before relying on a couple of their patented second-half runs to secure a 69-60 victory before 15,014 fans. The win moved Utah to 24-4 on the season and 12-1 in Mountain West Conference play, while BYU fell to 9-19 and 3-10.
The Cougars surprised the nearly all-Ute crowd by hanging tough most of the game. They led most of the first half and kept it close enough that the Utes couldn't take out Andrew Bogut and Marc Jackson until just 12 seconds remained in the game.
Bogut had his usual big numbers with 26 points, 13 rebounds and three steals, while Jackson dished out a career-high 11 assists and aggravated the Cougars with his defense. But the key Ute Saturday afternoon was 6-5 sophomore Justin Hawkins, who scored a career-high 21 points on 10 of 12 shooting from the field.
BYU was led by sophomore guard Austin Ainge with 17 points and six assists and Mike Hall with 12 points.
Even though they had clinched the Mountain West Conference title exactly a week earlier in Colorado, the Utes celebrated after the game as they have done so many times over the past decade.
The coaches and players were awarded the MWC trophy at midcourt and then the players took turns cutting down the net on the west basket while "We are the Champions" blared in the background.
"It's really special," said Ute coach Ray Giacoletti. "Their hard work was rewarded today and it was so nice they could do it in front of a packed house."
The Utes had gotten off to a horrible start, missing nine straight shots after a Richard Chaney basket on the first possession. Meanwhile, BYU was playing nothing like an 18-loss team, racing out to a 20-9 lead 12 minutes into the game.
"They hit some tough shots early, to their credit, and we panicked a little bit at the offensive end of the floor," said Giacoletti. "We got impatient offensively."
Comments
- Colts beat Titans 27-17 2:49 p.m.
- Dolphins rally past Patriots 2:46 p.m.
- Orton one-ups Cassel 2:40 p.m.
- Cutler, Bears hold off Rams 2:28 p.m.
- Vick runs, throws for TD 2:23 p.m.
- Bengals beat Lions 23-13 2:20 p.m.
- Jaguars beat Texans 23-18 2:17 p.m.
- Palin's Iowa stop spurs talk 2:14 p.m.
- Apple confirms purchase of Lala.com 2:10 p.m.
- Iraqi parliament approves election law 2:06 p.m.
- Y., U. to learn bowl destinations
- The forgotten ship: USS Utah
- Utahns want health care reform bills
- Snowy roads cause accidents, delays
- BYU basketball: Cougars crush Dons
- Tiger's SUV, personal life are a wreck
- Kurt Bestor: Joy for the world
- Jazz upset by Wolves
- Y. profs: Beck not all-knowing
- Branch president without a congregation
- Why is Y. ignoring spew of hatred?
314 - Letters: Liberal because LDS
253 - Y. profs: Beck not all-knowing
209 - Hate not limited to 1 in-state rivalry
189 - Aggies shoot past Cougars
179 - N.Y. Senate rejects gay marriage
129 - George lost in rivalry hatefest
112 - Unbeaten BYU takes trip to Logan
105 - Harpring's NBA career is over
94 - Ed Smart 'appalled' at testimony
94
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting (perhaps speculating) that Utah...
I got some e-mail from Aggie fans regarding a column I wrote last week...
and play whoever, let some PAC 10 team find some other opponent in the...
I'm a dude and I get. If you really want fair then you should have the PMS...
I think it was real nice of the JAZZ to play down to allow this poor team a...
Emergency and public safety workers might know what they're getting...
Re: Civil tyranny 1:43. Right, we hated it when shrub spent like a drunken...
OK, Max Hall's wordsmithing aside, I would love to see BYU play USC in the...
71-61, that is all.
It was a loud bang and a pretty good sized jolt when our perfectly stopped...
KM, no, we told the enemy that we are going to kill a lot of them in the next...
I'll take the health care plan that Congress now currently has...$500.00 a...




You can be the first to comment on this story.