Utah Utes, BYU basketball: Cougars down Utes with big 2nd half

PROVO — Maybe it's something in the halftime water cooler.

Whatever the reason, the BYU Cougars have been coming out in the second half recently with much more fire in their eyes and better accuracy on their shots. It's been the winning formula now for the Cougars' last three wins over New Mexico, San Diego State and now Utah.

Basically, the Cougars have won their three biggest games of the season without shooting lights out from start to finish, which is what they relied on most early in the year.

"Now we're finding new ways to win, and it's a sign of maturity of our team and the growth of our group," BYU coach Dave Rose said following the Cougars' 63-50 come-from-behind win Saturday at the Marriott Center over the Mountain West Conference leading Utes.

With the win, BYU's fifth over the Utes in the past six meetings, the 10-4 Cougars climb to within a game of 11-3 Utah. The Utes travel to New Mexico on Tuesday before finishing up at home next Saturday with TCU. The Cougars head to Wyoming on Wednesday before a final home game next weekend with Air Force.

After making only three of their first 16 shots, and connecting on only 27 percent from the floor in the first half, the Cougars — trailing 28-26 at the break — came out in the second half with four straight makes and finished the final 20 minutes making 50 percent of their shots.

"You can't give a team like (BYU) at home six points at the start of the half on easy baskets," Utah coach Jim Boylen said. "They're too good. They can hurt you in too many ways … I just thought we were soft to start the (second half). We gave them three layups in the first five minutes, and you can't do that on the road. That changed the (game's) complexity."

Even the Cougars feel the fast start to the second half was key in igniting their confidence and helping to take the lid off the basket.

"It got us going," BYU forward Lee Cummard said. "It got some energy into the crowd, and we fed off that and played a lot harder on the defensive end."

Those three quick layups put BYU ahead 32-30, the Cougars' first lead since going up 4-2 in the early minutes.

Even after the Utes, on a Lawrence Bohra jumper and Tyler Kepkay bank shot, went back ahead by two, the Cougars then rattled off nine straight to march ahead 43-36. Jimmer Fredette hit two shots in the run, with Jackson Emery adding a 3-pointer from the left corner and Cummard a base-line jumper.

"Shots just started falling," Cummard said.