Borha leads Utah to victory over UC Irvine

Lawrence Borha scored 16 of his 24 points in the second half Saturday, when Utah rallied from a 13-point deficit and posted a 78-66 victory over UC Irvine.

The Utes trailed 56-43 midway through the second half, but they outscored the Anteaters 35-10 in the final 10:23 to pull away for a win in the first game between the two schools in 10 years.

Borha also had eight rebounds and eight assists for Utah, which won its second straight game and improved to 4-2 on the season.

Kevin Bland scored 14 points to lead UC Irvine, which lost its fourth straight game and slipped to 2-5 for the season despite hitting 13 of 22 three-point shots.

The Anteaters started quickly, hitting seven of their first nine shots, including a pair of three-pointers.

Utah hung around, however, and trailed only 26-20 with 6:25 left in the half. Borha's three-point play brought the Utes within one before Utah took its first lead on center Luke Nevill's first field goal of the game with 1:30 left in the half.

Nevill

Cal-Irvine charged back in the opening minutes of the second half, hitting 10 of 13 shots including seven three-pointers while building its 13-point lead.

Freshman Carlos Brown started Utah's comeback with a three-point play and, during the next 4:33, the Utes used a 17-1 surge to take a 60-57 lead.