Utes rally, soar past Falcons in 2nd half

COLORADO SPRINGS — Utah men's basketball coach Jim Boylen says when your team trails Air Force by 10 points, "It feels like 60."

The Utes trailed the deliberate Falcons by 10 points at halftime Saturday. But — thanks to tough defense, some huge offensive rebounds and Johnnie Bryant's hot hand — managed to come through with a 67-59 victory at Clune Arena.

The victory was a big one for the Utes, who improved to 5-4 in Mountain West play and 14-8 overall by beating the Falcons (12-10, 4-5) for the second time this season.

The Utes looked dead in the water, trailing 30-20 at the half, but they stormed out in the second half to take the lead in just eight minutes and then showed the necessary poise to hang on for the win,something they struggled with earlier in the season.

"That's one more hurdle," said Boylen. "That's the first time we've been down and won. Give my guys credit — defensively, I thought we buckled down in the second half and played hard."

Bryant led the way for the Utes again, scoring a team-high 15 points, including 12 in the second half, on 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range.

Luke Nevill scored 13 points, while Luka Drca scored 12 and Carlon Brown and Shaun Green pulled down 11 and 10 rebounds, respectively.

Boylen said he was disappointed in his team's first-half play and also gave credit to Air Force's defense, which confused the Utes.

"It takes awhile to figure it out," he said. "We had one offensive rebound in the first half and 11 in the second half. That was the difference in the game."

At halftime, Boylen said he identified what his team was doing wrong, talked about what they needed to do better and then tried to motivate them.

"Coach always gives a good speech at halftime," said Brown. "It was just about us coming out and doing it. We came out way better in the second half."

The Utes led midway through the first half, but watched the Falcons go on a 15-2 tear and take a 24-14 lead. By halftime, it was 30-20 and it was looking like a repeat of the last two years, when the Utes lost by scores of 66-44 and 69-43.

But in the second half, the Utes kept the Falcons from driving for easy baskets and started knocking down 3-pointers.