BYU 46, Utah 41If you love Stephen King novels, dig Wes Cravens' movies and wouldn't turn down an episode of Cops for a date with a supermodel, then Saturday's Utah-BYU basketball game was right up your alley.
In other words, it was gruesome and full of trash. But the result couldn't have been prettier for the Cougars.
BYU beat the Utes for the first time since 1993 in the Huntsman Center, 46-41, despite shooting an abysmal 28 percent from the field. Think that's bad? The Utes hit only 27 percent of their attempts while both teams combined to turn the ball over 45 times.
It's a wonder why KJZZ didn't pull the plug on the game in favor of an infomercial.
"Both offenses struggled, but I really believe it was exceptional defense," BYU coach Trent Shippen said. "It was one of our best defensive games since I've been here."
The Cougars didn't begin the day feeling so vigilant, though. Utah came out of the locker room and lit the Cougars up for 19 points in the game's first 11 minutes to take an 11-point lead.
"We came out pumped up," Utah's Amy Ewert said, "and thought we could bury them right away."
Instead of getting caught in the Ute avalanche, the Cougars decided to get out their shovels and start digging into the Utah lead. That's when the BYU defense showed up and the Utah offense got tucked away somewhere with the practice jerseys.
BYU ended the first half with a 12-0 run and took a 20-19 lead into the break. While the Cougars were soaring, the Utes were searching everywhere to find their shots.
"We were really frustrated at halftime," Utah's Lori Red said. "When times got tough, we literally stood around and watched the game happen. We didn't respond to BYU's pressure."
Utah allowed BYU to turn its one-point lead into a seven-point advantage with less than 10 minutes to play, but Kristina Andersen nailed back-to-back threes to pull her team within a point at 33-32 with 8:06 to play. The Utes, however, could never break through the Cougar defense long enough to regain the lead.
"The problems are obviously on the offensive end," Utah coach Elaine Elliott said. "It's because we lacked aggressiveness."
Eleven of BYU's final 13 points came from the free throw line, while the Utes continually missed foul shots that could haves given them the lead. For that reason, the Cougars could afford to keep missing field goal attempts and still escape ith the victory.
"You'd think you would have to shoot in the 40s (percent) or better to win in this building," Erin Thorn said. "We went in the locker room knowing we could win with our defense, though. We had the momentum and just kept playing touch defensively."
The win, coupled with Colorado State's loss to New Mexico Saturday, means that the Cougars are one game behind the Utes, Colorado State and New Mexico, which all have three losses.
"This loss hurts because if we would have won the title would have been ours," Ewert said. "To lose a game at home kills and to BYU it's even worse. I hope we play them in the MWC Tournament because today we gave the game to them."
It's a gift BYU will gladly accept. No matter how ugly it may be.