Good effort, another bad result

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Playing without leading scorer and leading rebounder Luke Nevill, who was out with a hip pointer, the Utah basketball team gave one of its better efforts of the season Wednesday night against Wyoming.

But it wasn't quite good enough as the Utes fell to the Cowboys 86-78 before 5,483 at the Arena-Auditorium.

The Utes shot 57.1 percent from the field and their offense actually seemed to run smoother without Nevill in the middle. However, a couple of problems that have plagued the Utes all season — turnovers and poor defense — led to a loss that dropped the Utes dropped to 4-9 in Mountain West Conference play and 9-17 overall.

For a change, Ute coach Ray Giacoletti was a little upbeat following a loss because of the "energy" his team showed throughout the game.

"With what we've been through this week and no inside presence with Luke out, this could have been a disaster," Giacoletti said. "But we showed character and came to play. I was proud of our effort."

However, Giacoletti was not happy with the Utes' ball-handling, which resulted in 17 turnovers, including 13 in the second half, and their inability to shut down Brandon Ewing and Brad Jones, who scored 28 and 19 points, respectively.

"The turnovers killed us in the second half," he said. "We had a difficult time guarding them and stopping their penetration. They shot 22 foul shots, and that's unacceptable."

Johnnie Bryant scored 26 on 10-of-15 shooting to lead the Utes, while Lawrence Borha added 13, Daniel Deane 12 and Shaun Green 11 points and 10 rebounds

With the Utes' offense flowing well most of the game, the Utes came up with several uncontested shots inside and they led for much of the first half.

As they have in several games lately, the Utes started well and moved out to a 29-22 lead with 5:17 left in the first half after a layup by Ricky Johns. But then Utes' defense let down as the Cowboys scored on eight of nine possessions to close the half on a 17-4 run that gave them a 39-33 halftime lead.

Borha started the second half and made the Utes' first three baskets on drives. Then Bryant got loose for a couple of layups to put the Utes up 45-43 with 14:33 left.

That's when Ewing heated up.