Moving on: Jackson beats slump at just the right time

TUCSON, Ariz. — Marc Jackson is on track to become the best 3-point shooter in Utah basketball history, but his shot hasn't been falling for the past couple of weeks. Until the final minute of Thursday's NCAA first-round game against UTEP, he had missed all four of his 3-point tries and had made just one layup.

So with 41 seconds left in a tied game, who were the Utes going to call?

Marc Jackson.

With the Miners triple-teaming Andrew Bogut as they had most of the game, Jackson calmly fired up a shot from just inside the 3-point line. The ball curled around the rim and fell through the net for what turned out to be the winning basket in the Utes' 60-54 victory.

With the win the Utes advance to the second round Saturday against Oklahoma, which defeated Niagara 74-57 Thursday. Tipoff will be 1:40 p.m.

"You've got to make big plays down the stretch to win basketball games," said Utah coach Ray Giacoletti. "Last week in Denver we didn't, and New Mexico won."

The victory was Utah's 10th first-round NCAA victory since 1990 and the first since beating Oregon in the opening round two years ago in Nashville, Tenn. It will try to advance past the second round for the first time since 1998.

The back-and-forth game in which UTEP took an early seven-point lead only to see the Utes come back for a 13-point second-half lead was tied at 54 when the Utes got the ball back with 1:10 left.

Utah worked 23 seconds off the clock and called a timeout with 12 on the shot clock. The play call was for Jackson to try to get the ball into Bogut, who had scored 24 points, but had been shut down most of the second half. But if Bogut was covered well, it was Jackson's option to take the shot.

"I knew I was open and had to take that shot," Jackson said. "We were looking down low to Andrew, and at first the guy came over with me but went under when another guy stepped out. But then they both went with Andrew. It felt like I had a couple of seconds, so I just took it."

Even though he had missed all his outside shots after going 2 of 8 against New Mexico, Jackson wasn't hesitant about shooing.

"It's frustrating (to miss a few), but as a shooter, you just have to keep shooting because you know a couple are going to drop," he said.