U. ends 6-game losing streak

What a way to end the school's longest losing streak in 57 years.

The Utah basketball team, which has endured eight last-minute losses this year, ended its six-game losing streak in remarkable fashion Tuesday night by defeating the 11th-ranked team in the country, which came into the game with the longest winning streak in the nation.

The Utes jumped to an early 15-point lead, then hung on for dear life with an 85-79 win over Air Force at the Huntsman Center.

Go figure.

The two Mountain West Conference teams were seemingly going in opposite directions, but the Utes led from start to finish Tuesday in improving to 6-12 on the season and 1-4 in MWC play.

The Falcons, who had a 13-game winning streak, with their only other loss coming to Duke, fell to 17-2 and 4-1.

"Boy did we need that," Utah coach Ray Giacoletti said. "There's nothing harder than when you're going through tough times, but I'm just proud of our guys not only to get off to a good start but to go from start to finish. I thought we were pretty darn solid."

The Utes had several players step up, led by center Luke Nevill, who scored 18 points on 8 of 8 from the field and grabbed 10 rebounds. Johnnie Bryant also scored 18, while Shaun Green had 15. Ricky Johns and Lawrence Borha each scored career highs with 14 and 13, respectively.

"This was huge," Nevill said. "To come against a team like Air Force made it especially sweet."

Air Force got 21 from Jacob Burtschi, 20 from Dan Nwaelele and 19 from Matt McCraw. However, former MWC player of the year Nick Welch ended with just two points on 0-for-5 shooting and never seemed himself after Ute freshman David Foster blocked two of his shots in a row late in the first half.

For the game, the Utes shot a season-high 70.7 percent on 29 of 41, including 56.3 percent from 3-point range and 85.7 percent from the free-throw line.

"To be honest, I was more nervous about how we were going to score," Giacoletti said. "You can watch all the tape you want, but nobody really has an answer on something that is that effective."

After taking a 31-21 halftime lead on 68.8 percent shooting, the Utes didn't lose their lead as fast as New Mexico did 10 days earlier when the Lobos blew a 21-point lead and lost to the Falcons by eight.

Luka Durca hit back-to-back shots before leaving the game with four fouls, and Bryant hit a 3-pointer to make it 41-31.

Air Force scored three points on five straight possessions — three 3-pointers and two three-point plays and cut the lead to five at 58-53 with 7:06 left.

However, Green sank a 3-pointer from the right corner and Borha scored on a drive to put the Utes up by 10 again.

Utah pushed the lead to 12 at 69-57 on a drive by Johns.