From Deseret News archives:
Oregon holds off U. down stretch
And for the second time, the Utes couldn't pull out a victory.
This time it was No. 18-ranked Oregon, which held off the scrappy Utes 75-64 before 11,447 Saturday at the Rose Garden Arena in the annual Pape' Jam game.
"We came here to win," said Ute coach Jim Boylen. "I'm very disappointed. We get a lot of credit for competing, but now we need to learn how to win."
The Utes (5-3) led by four late in the first half, despite having leading scorer and rebounder Luke Nevill on the bench in foul trouble for most of the half, and were within four points late in the game. But as they did in a six-point loss at Washington last month, they couldn't make the key plays down the stretch when they needed to.
"We have a couple of plays we could have made that would have tightened things up but didn't make the plays," Boylen said. "We had those opportunities but didn't make those plays."
Ute point guard Tyler Kepkay, playing in front of family and friends from nearby Vancouver for the second time this year, had his best game of the season. He scored 23 points from all over the floor and directed the Utes for 35 minutes.
However, he didn't have enough help as no other Utes finished with double-figure scoring. Nevill had just nine points and five rebounds in 22 minutes, while Carlon Brown, Shaun Green and Lawrence Borha each scored seven points.
Oregon (7-1), which has four starters returning from last year's Elite Eight team that finished 29-8, had balanced scoring as usual. Guard Bryce Taylor, who was awarded a trophy as the player of the game, led the way with 20 points, and 5-foot-6 sophomore Tajuan Porter scored 16, while Joevan Catron and Maary Leunen each scored 11.
Oregon coach Ernie Kent was happy to get the win even though he didn't feel his team played its best.
"If I was a golfer, I would have to use an analogy that Tiger Woods uses a lot. We really had to grind through the game today. It was a good win to get out of the way, even though we didn't play our best basketball."
Part of that had to do with the Utes, who played some tough defense and surprised the Ducks with their offense, particularly Kepkay.
Early on it looked like the 18th-ranked Ducks would cruise as they jumped out to an 18-13 lead midway through the first half.
That's when Kepkay came alive.
He made four straight shots, on an 18-footer, a 15-footer, a drive to the basket and a 3-pointer. Just like that it was 22-18 Utah, and he added another basket on a drive after Brown scored on a spin move in the lane.
