Utah torches Wildcats

OGDEN — Before Wednesday, Utah's Shaun Green had been almost invisible on offense. In four games, Green, an 11-point-per-game scorer a year ago, had scored a grand total of seven points, putting him 10th on the team in scoring.

Green changed all that in a hurry Wednesday night with a flurry of shots that propelled the Utes to a convincing 72-52 victory over Weber State at the Dee Events Center.

The 6-foot-8 junior sank five first-half 3-pointers, including four in the last five minutes of the first half. For the game he made 6-of-10 threes for a game-high 18 points helping the Utes improve to 3-2 on the season.

"All week the coaching staff and my teammates have been telling me to quit passing on open shots," Green said. "So tonight I just happened to be in the right spot, and they happened to fall for me. The rest of the team did a great job of finding me open, and I made shots."

Utah coach Jim Boylen said players like Green are the reason he wanted to return to coach college basketball after being in the pros for 13 years.

"He sacrificed for the team for a month and has done everything I've asked him to do ... all the things that matter and don't show up on the stat sheet," Boylen said. "And tonight it all came back to him. I'm so proud of that guy."

Besides Green, the Utes got 16 points from Luke Nevill, 12 from Tyler Kepkay and 10 from Johnnie Bryant. Arturas Valeika led the Wildcats with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Early on it looked for a while like the Utes were going to get blown out by the Wildcats, coached by former Ute assistant Randy Rahe. Less than eight minutes into the game, Utah trailed 16-4 with its lone basket being a 3-pointer by Green.

Then the Utes turned up their defense a few notches and looked for Green to score. Incredibly, the Utes held Weber State without a field goal for over 12 minutes on 19 straight possessions as the Wildcats missed nine shots and had 10 turnovers.

"We just went into the huddle and told each other stick to the game plan and keep fighting hard and we'll be back into the game and that's what happened," said Green.

"We win games because of our defense," said Nevill. "That's what we had to focus on."

With just over five minutes left, the Utes still trailed 18-13 when Green sank back-to-back 3-pointers, one from the top of the key and one from the left corner to give the Utes a lead they'd never relinquish.