Utah Utes, BYU basketball: Utes take a thriller

When it came down to it, Utah coach Jim Boylen left it on the shoulders of his seniors and they came through big-time in a thrilling 94-88 overtime victory over rival BYU Tuesday night at the Huntsman Center.

There was Luke Nevill, who scored a career-high 32 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. How about Tyler Kepkay, who scored 19 points, including 10 in the deciding overtime. Then there was Lawrence Borha, who scored 12 points, including a big 3-pointer to get the Utes started in OT. Finally there was Shaun Green, who despite scoring just seven points, came up with three big offensive rebounds in the overtime.

"I'm so proud of what we did," said Ute coach Jim Boylen, who got his first victory over BYU in three tries. "I went with my four seniors down the stretch. I wasn't going to sub my four seniors. I thought they delivered and I'm happy for them."

For the Utes, it was an uphill struggle all night and after battling to get into overtime, the first in the Utah-BYU series in 17 years, the Utes came through in the extra period.

The Utes outscored the Cougars 23-17, sinking 12-of-16 free throws.

The Ute victory, which moved them into a tie for first in the Mountain West Conference standings at 4-2 and to 13-7 overall, overshadowed a great performance by BYU senior Lee Cummard, who scored 23 points and pulled down seven rebounds.

"Luke and Cummard were as good a show as I've seen and I've seen more than 1,700 games," Boylen gushed afterward.

When it came down to it, Kepkay was probably the hero of the game. A year earlier he could have been called the goat after missing an open 3-pointer late in a tie game and then missing on a drive with Utah down one and finally a 3-pointer that could have tied at the buzzer.

Kepkay shrugged off any talk of redemption afterward.

"I just saw some openings in the overtime and took them," said Kepkay. "I think it came down to our conditioning. We're the best conditioned team in the country."

The Utes were clinging to a 78-76 lead when Kepkay took the ball from the left side of the court, drove under the basket and finished with a reverse layup to give the Utes their largest lead of the night with 2:23 left.

Then after he missed a free throw, Green snagged the rebound and with 1:50 left, Kepkay drove in from the right side for a layup to put the Utes up 82-76