Breakthrough: Cougars beat Utes at Huntsman Center for first time since 1994

Well, at least we won't have to hear Robbie Reid's name before every future Utah-BYU basketball game at the Huntsman Center.

For the past 12 years, Reid's name has come up on a regular basis as BYU continued to lose to the Utes at the Huntsman Center. The last time BYU won in Salt Lake in 1994, Reid sank a game-winning 3-pointer.

But after the Cougars' convincing 76-66 victory Wednesday night, we can start talking about Keena Young and Jonathan Tavernari, who led the Cougars' first victory in Salt Lake in 13 years.

Young was unstoppable inside in scoring 21 points, while Tavernari, a freshman forward, came off the bench to score 17 points, including three 3-pointers.

With the win, BYU moves into a first-place tie in the Mountain West Conference at 6-2, while improving to 16-6 overall. The Utes completed the first half of MWC play at 2-6 and dropped to 7-14 overall.

The Utes accomplished their game plan of getting the ball into center Luke Nevill as he finished with a game-high 26 points and nine rebounds. He was aided by Ricky Johns, who scored a career-high 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

However, poor defense hurt the Utes — again — as they couldn't make stops while allowing the Cougars to shoot 52.6 percent from the field.

"It's very cut and dried," said Ute coach Ray Giacoletti. "Until we defend a little better, we'll be put in these positions. We need to take pride in guarding people."

Giacoletti praised the efforts of Nevill and Johns on both sides of the ball. But they had little help as two of the Utes' best scorers, Johnnie Bryant and Shaun Green each finished with just four points.

The Utes' obvious strategy was to get the ball into Nevill and try to get BYU center Trent Plaisted into foul trouble. Just 13 seconds into the game, Nevill made a 10-foot bank shot and was fouled by Plaisted.

But the Utes had no answer for Young, who hit a variety of short jumpers in the lane and finished with 13 first-half points.

"Keena Young may be the best player in the league right now," said Giacoletti. "I don't know who can defend him — he just scores at will."

Utah led 17-15 when Tavernari hit the first of consecutive 3-pointers that put the Cougars up 21-17. The lead got as high as seven at 28-21 before the Utes cut it to three at 30-27. However, that was as close as Utah would get as BYU scored the last four points of the half for a 34-27 halftime lead.