Utes down Falcons

Saturday night's battle between Utah and Air Force was one of those games where you could catch up on your knitting or plan the next month on your Palm Pilot or even enjoy a good snooze. Possessions were endless, neither team shot well and with under five minutes to play, both teams had barely scored 30 points apiece.

Thankfully for the Utes, they woke up just in the "nick" of time, scoring 12 straight points to turn what looked like a nail-biter into a 45-35 victory at the Huntsman Center.

Nick Jacobson, who was struggling all night, put the Utes up for good with a 3-pointer with 2:43 left and then added five free throws to make the final score quite deceiving.

With the victory, the Utes improved to 15-4 on the season and 3-1 in Mountain West Conference play, while the snake-bitten Falcons dropped to 1-4 in the MWC and 10-8 overall.

"That's a tough team to play against — they're tough kids," said Utah coach Rick Majerus. "We're just fortunate Air Force missed their free throws."

The Falcons came into the game as the only team ranked below the Utes, who have struggled from the line all season, in free-throw shooting. They made just 7 of 17 from the line, and if they had made some earlier in the game, the Utes may have been too far behind to catch up. On the other hand, the Utes were just about as bad, making just 11 of 21 for the game after being 4 of 13 going into the last four minutes.

With less than three minutes to play, the Falcons led 33-31 and had a chance to extend the lead. Nick Welch missed a 3-pointer and then A.J. Kuhle was blocked by Ute freshman Bryant Markson. After Britton Johnsen missed a 3-pointer, Tim Frost scored on a put-back to tie the score.

Then Tom Bellairs missed a wide-open 3-pointer from the top of the key and at the other end, Jacobson, who had only scored two points at the that point, swished a 3-pointer to give the Utes the lead for good. Thirty seconds later Markson made a tough pull-up jumper in the lane for a 38-33 advantage and the Utes added 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch.

"All we have to do is make foul shots and we win the basketball game," said disappointed AFA coach Joe Scott, who has seen several similar games against the Utes. "We hold Utah to 33 points with two and a half minutes to go. If we just make 13 of 17 foul shots, we're up 40-33 and Nick Jacobson doesn't even get a chance to do what he did to you."