BYU Beats Down Utah in Convincing Holy War Win

After a close loss to Boise State, BYU responded with a convincing 82-64 win over Utah Saturday in Provo. BYU went into halftime up 13 and was never seriously threatened in the second half.

BYU got a very balanced effort and physically dominated the Utes on both sides of the floor. Richard Harward set the tone physically, scoring 15 points off the bench and grabbing 7 boards. Spencer Johnson also gave BYU a nice performance off the bench for the second game in a row with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Caleb Lohner came away with another great rebounding performance, fishing with 10 boards and 8 points. Connor Harding had his best game of the season and finished with 17 points.

Alex Barcello had a season-low 5 points, but he distributed the ball well and finished with 8 assists. Overall, BYU had 8 guys that scored at least 5 points and got 41 of 82 points off the bench.

This was BYU’s best performance of the season as BYU forced Utah into contested shots and had great ball movement offensively to keep Utah off-balanced. If BYU plays like this the rest of the season, they have the look of the team that will compete for a NCAA tournament bid.

BYU’s next game gets tougher as BYU travels to San Diego State next week. The Aztecs are ranked 24 and coming off a top 25 road win at Arizona State. BYU will get 6 days off until they play at SDSU Friday afternoon.