Defense rules day in Utes' victory

Lawrence Borha and Shaun Green scored just 10 of Utah's 88 points between them Tuesday night at the Huntsman Center. Yet they were the two players singled out by coach Jim Boylen after the Utes' 88-43 victory over Northwest Nazarene.

Why? Because of defense.

Ever since he arrived at Utah, Boylen has been trying to develop a defensive mentality on his young team and slowly but surely the players are getting it.

"I thought we grew tonight," Boylen said. "I thought we improved on defense. I thought we improved on our toughness, we hit some people today and we dove on the floor."

Boylen said he asked Borha to be a defensive-minded player and he assigned him to guard the Crusaders' best player, Justin Parnell. All Borha did was hold Parnell scoreless and to 0-for-5 shooting from the field.

"That's what we're trying to establish here," Boylen said.

As for Green, Boylen said he told him after the game he couldn't remember anything he did offensively, but that he played "really well" defensively.

"I thought those two guys were terrific," he said. "That's what we have to do around here."

For the second straight game, the Utes held their opponent less than 30 percent shooting from the field as the Crusaders finished at 28.9 percent.

As Stephen Weigh said, "The most important thing tonight is that we held them below 30 percent. Last year, it was 60 percent on a regular basis."

Offensively, the Utes got great efforts from center Luke Nevill, who led all scorers with 19 points and Weigh, who scored 17 points with a perfect night from the field, making all six field goals, including three 3-pointers and both of his free throws.

"I've been doing a lot of extra shooting and I guess it's paying off," Weigh said. "But they're only exhibition games."

Johnnie Bryant scored 11 points, while Kim Tillie had 10 points and eight rebounds and impressed his coach defensively as well.

"Tillie was, in spurts, dominating on defense," Boylen said.

JC transfer Tyler Kepkay directed the Ute offense well and finished with nine points and five assists, looking much-improved from the first game.

"Tyler is getting better," Boylen said. "He had his best practice Sunday and his second-best practice Monday. He's got to play well for us to be successful."