Toughing it out — Utes limit Air Force to 13 points in second half

The way things started Saturday afternoon, you'd never have imagined any way the Utah basketball team could eventually take a 22-point victory, even if the Utes were playing against an Air Force team picked to finish near the bottom of the Mountain West Conference standings.

The Utes didn't make a field goal until the game was nearly 8 minutes old and by halftime the Utes had more turnovers than baskets, had twice as many fouls as baskets and just one Ute had even scored a field goal.

However, thanks to some stellar defense and a large dose of Johnnie Bryant, the Utes captured a 58-36 victory over the Falcons in the Mountain West opener for both schools at the Huntsman Center.

Bryant scored 22 points off the bench and the Utes defense came up big in the second half in holding the Falcons to 16.7 percent shooting and just 13 total points.

Saturday's game was a perfect example of what coach Jim Boylen has been preaching all year — that the Utes can win games even when they're struggling offensively as long as they play tough defense.

"I thought we hung in there when our offense wasn't going and our defense kept us going, which is the way we want to play," Boylen said. "We want to be a defensive team first and let our offense come around. If this team competes defensively, we have a chance to be a good team."

This Air Force team isn't as good as recent ones that won more than 20 games three of the last four years and were nationally ranked at times. Still, the Falcons came in with a 8-5 record and Boylen praised first-year coach Jeff Reynolds for the progress the team had made.

Boylen said the Falcons "are a very difficult team to play against" and that showed in the early going as the Utes couldn't do much against the Falcons' tight defense.

Before the game, Boylen had expressed concern with his team's second-half starts this year. However, Saturday's first-half start was dreadful as the Utes were 0-for-6 from the field with four turnovers and trailed 6-5 with just over 12 minutes left in the half.

That's when Bryant sank a 3-pointer from the left angle, which brought a big cheer from the crowd of 10,144.

Bryant hit four more threes before the half was over and helped the Utes take a 29-23 halftime lead. While Bryant was 5-for-8 from the field in the first half, the rest of the Ute team was 0-for-6.

"I was disappointed going into halftime," said Boylen, who was particularly peeved because the Utes gave up an open 3-pointer and a layup just before the buzzer.

"We talked about it and I thought we made a couple of good adjustments on the pick and roll and we were pretty solid in the second half," he said.