AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo.—Down 30-20 after 20 minutes, Utah coach was Jim Boylen not a happy man.
“To say the least, I was disappointed in my team at halftime,” he said after the Utes had come from behind to defeat Air Force 67-59 Saturday.
“I though we settled (for relatively poor shots) in the first half. You have to give them credit. I’ve said it before. It takes a little while to figure out that zone out there. You don’t see it every day and you don’t play against it every day. It just takes a while to figure it out.”
The 20 halftime points were Utah’s low for the season, but Boylen found the proper formula. Senior guard Johnnie Bryant, who had three points at halftime, came to life in the second half. Bryant was 4-of-5 on 3-point shots and added two free throws en route to a game-high 17 points.
“It was a pretty bad first half and we were lucky to be down by only 10 points,” Bryant said. “We came out with a different focus, and I just found my rhythm in the second half.”
Utah (14-8, 5-4 Mountain West) tied Air Force 37-37 with Bryant nailing a three-pointer at the 13:17 mark. Luka Drca hit a 3-pointer at 11:52 to give Utah a 40-37 lead, and Bryant scored from beyond the arc at 11:27 to stretch the margin to 43-38.
Though Air Force (4-5, 12-10) tied the game 48-48 at 7:49 behind a 3-pointer from Tim Anderson, Utah regained its momentum and never relinquished the lead.
“We could have stopped them when they went on their run and didn’t,” Anderson said. “We needed to make some shots. Utah has a lot of weapons. They had a 6-foot-8 shooter (Shaun Green) and another one inside. In the second half, they drew up some plays and beat us.”
Boylen also gave credit to his defense.
“They made four 3s in the first half and one in the second,” he said. “That was it—our extra possessions and all that. We talked about that, trying to get offensive rebounds and extra possessions. Give my guys credit. Defensively, I thought we buckled down in the second half and played hard.”
Luke Nevill, a 7-1 center, entered the game as the Utes’ leading scorer and rebounder. He was dominant under the basket early, but got into foul trouble near the end of the first half. He picked up his third foul with 1:20 to go, being assessed a technical for protesting a call under the Utah basket. Nevill finished with 13 points and two rebounds. He didn’t pick up a fourth foul until late in the game.
Drca also was in double figures for the Utes with 12 points.
“They had two or three possessions that were difficult for us,” said Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds. “I thought our guys held their composure, but Utah’s toughness was the difference. Our guys played hard, and that’s all I can ask.”
With the win, Utah completes a season sweep of Air Force. The Utes defeated the Falcons, 58-36 in Salt Lake City on Jan. 5.
Anderson again led Air Force scoring with 16 points. Andrew Henke, who sparked an Air Force scoring run in the first half but was scoreless in the second, Evan Washington and Anwar Johnson all had 11 for the Falcons.
Utah entered the match leading the Mountain West Conference with 49 percent field goal shooting. The Utes were No. 2 in the league with 40.4 percent 3-point shooting and 73.8 percent free-throw shooting.
Against Air Force, the Utes shot 45.8 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3-point range and 72.2 percent from the line.
