Utah Utes basketball: Wyoming's Plan B can't stop Nevill

LARAMIE, Wyo. — A month ago when Utah beat Wyoming by 24 points in Salt Lake City, the Cowboys tried guarding Luke Nevill one-and-one. And the Ute center poured in 29 points.

So for Saturday's rematch at the Arena-Auditorium, the Pokes decided to double-team Nevill, much as recent Ute opponents have tried.

That didn't work either.

The Ute offense simply found open man after open man for 3-pointers and the result was a comfortable 80-70 Ute victory.

The Utes' 10th win in their last 12 games keeps them atop the Mountain West Conference standings at 7-2 (16-7 overall), tied with San Diego State. The tie will be broken Wednesday night when the Aztecs visit the Huntsman Center for a huge game.

For perhaps the first time in Ute basketball history, at least the first time in a long while, the Utes placed six players in double figures. Nevill, Luka Drca, Lawrence Borha and Tyler Kepkay each scored 15 points, while Shaun Green and Carlon Brown each scored 10.

The Utes had their third best season total of 3-pointers with 11 and all of Utah's 3-point shooters got in the act as Drca, Borha and Kepkay each sank three and Green made two.

Nevill, who finished with his ninth double-double of the season — 12 rebounds to go along with his 15 points — said he didn't mind all of the defensive attention he got Saturday.

"They threw double-teams at me and tried to make me throw the ball out," he said. "But it was successful because we swung the ball well, we knocked down threes and we scored off those plays. So I can't complain."

Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer liked the way his team defended Nevill, but he wasn't happy about the defense applied to the rest of the Utes.

"We did a decent job defensively on Nevill, but we didn't on their other guys," Schroyer said. "We didn't defend the ball well, we didn't rotate on defense and we didn't rebound the ball."

Utah took a 35-34 halftime lead after watching a seven-point lead melt amid a 12-2 Wyoming flurry. Drca calmly sank a pair of 3-pointers in the final 1:21 to put the Utes back on top heading into halftime.

"I wasn't forcing anything and I just let the ball come to me," Drca said. "The guys found me open."

The Utes were in serious foul trouble by halftime with five players having two or more, including four on Kim Tillie.