"We talked about rebounding and defending and not turning the ball over to have a chance to win this game," said Boylen. "I thought our defense was outstanding — Lawrence Borha, Drca, Luke, Kim Tillie and Shaun Green ... Our goal was to hold them to 35 percent and we held them to 33 and our goal was to hold them to 38 from the three and we held them to 36."

LSU, which was led by Marcus Thornton with 17 points, Tasmin Mitchell with 14 points and Chris Johnson with 13, came out firing and took an early 8-2 lead. The game was still tied at 29 when the Utes closed the first half on a 14-5 run.

In the second half, the Utes broke the game open with a 14-4 run, which pushed the lead to 19 at 65-46 with 11:12 left. Besides Nevill's three baskets during the run, Green, Tyler Kepkay, Drca and Tillie each scored.

The Utes will hit the road for two games, Saturday afternoon at San Diego State and at Air Force the following Wednesday.

"Now we're back into league play and the beat goes on," said Boylen.

GAME NOTES: This was LSU's first true road game of the year after playing 12 home games and one neutral court game in Houston, losing to Texas A&M ... The Utes came into the game ranked No. 9 in the nation in free throw shooting and were 21 of 24 for 87.5 percent ... Before Tuesday, the two schools had met twice before with LSU winning in Baton Rouge in 2003 and Utah winning 69-55 at the Huntsman Center in 2005 ... The two schools are scheduled to play Jan. 2 in Baton Rouge next year.

E-mail: sor@desnews.com