BYU, Utah Utes basketball: Cougars roll past Utes, tie series at 125-all

SALT LAKE CITY — It might have been the first time in the 101-year history of the Utah-BYU rivalry that fans started streaming up the aisles with 11 minutes left in the game.

At that point, the Cougars already led by 29 points and from there they coasted to a 71-51 victory over the Utes Wednesday night at the Huntsman Center.

It marked the second-largest margin of victory ever in a BYU win in Salt Lake, only behind a 73-50 Cougar win in 1953. It was also the biggest Cougar victory over Utah since an 85-62 loss in Provo three years ago.

And it wasn't like the Cougars played like the 14th-ranked team in the nation. They only managed to shoot 36.8 percent from the field, tying their worst percentage of the year, and league player of the year candidate Jimmer Fredette managed just eight points on 1-of-7 shooting,

But the Utes were even worse. They shot a dreadful 26.9 percent from the field, the worst in Jim Boylen's three years and committed 17 turnovers.

"Offensively it was a very poor performance," Boylen said. " Their defense was good, but we struggled to score. We had open shots that didn't go in. We had poor execution, (had trouble) finishing plays at rim and playing through contact. I thought we had all those. We missed eight free throws. It just cascaded from there."

BYU coach Dave Rose was happy with his offense and gave credit to Utah's defense.

"I thought defensively that was as good as we've had consistently," he said. "I mean, we were engaged. We did a great job of what we wanted to do and it was tough for them to score."

With their offense struggling, the Cougars relied on two guys off the bench, who had career nights. Well, almost for Michael Loyd, who scored all 18 of his points in the first half to stake the Cougars to a 36-24 lead after getting 19 Saturday against New Mexico. Freshman Brandon Davies was unstoppable, scoring a career-high 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 13 in the second half.

The Utes got off to their usual slow start, but had to be heartened when Fredette picked up his second foul less than five minutes into the game and went to the bench. Jace Tavita was at the free throw line with a chance to give the Utes the lead, but clanked both free throws and Utah never came close to leading again.

Loyd came in for Fredette and took the game over, nearly outscoring the Utes by himself the rest of the half. The Utes closed the gap to seven at 31-24, but couldn't score over the final 2:43 and the Cougars took a 12-point halftime lead.