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SALT LAKE CITY — Undefeated no more.
Gabe Madsen hit a side-stepping 3-pointer to give Utah a 7-point lead with a minute left to play, and the home team held on to beat a previously undefeated No. 14 BYU team 73-69 Saturday night at a sold out Huntsman Center.
"BYU is an excellent team, they're an excellent program," Utah head coach Craig Smith said. "They're No. 14 in the country for a reason coming into this thing undefeated, and not only undefeated but the way they've handled their business."
"Congratulations to Utah; they played tough, and with a ton of intensity," BYU head coach Mark Pope added. "It's a terrific win for them. I'm proud of my guys; in parts of the game where we could find the space to be us, we were. I'm really proud of that."
The rivalry win didn't come without some dramatics in the final minute, though.
Former BYU (8-1) guard Hunter Erickson got the ball stolen on an inbounds play, and Richie Saunders spotted up for a top of the key 3-pointer to cut Utah's lead to 71-69.
On the ensuing possession, Utah (7-2) tried to drain the clock before Branden Carlson heaved up a contested 3-pointer at the top of the key as the shot clock neared zero, but the ball fell short of the rim and gave BYU 9.9 seconds to go the full length of the court for a chance to tie or win.
BYU's Dallin Hall pushed the ball down the floor and attacked the rim on a give-and-go opportunity. But Utah's Keba Keita pressured Hall to the baseline before he was forced to throw the ball away to Rollie Worster, who was quickly fouled to stop the clock.
"I wanted a go game, and a wrap-around on the weak side," Pope said. "Aly (Khalifa) did a great job getting a catch, Dallin did a nice job coming up from three, and then he just lost the handle. We had a look to get downhill, but also to get within two feet."
Worster then drained both free throws to stave off the BYU comeback.
"To be able to go out there and trust him and say, 'Hey, we're switching one through five here,' because we hadn't really done that all game," Smith said of Keita's play at the end. "So to be able to do that on Dallin Hall, which that guy's made a lot of big time plays throughout high school and obviously last year as a freshman made a lot of big plays. So for Keba to be able to switch that, be physical on the drive and stay in front and cut him off, that was a huge play."
GABE. MADSEN. MONEY. 🎯@GabeMadsen53#GoUtes | 📺 @Pac12Networkpic.twitter.com/3QOQxUqmO1
— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) December 10, 2023
The opening few minutes of the game couldn't have gone any better for Utah.
The Runnin' Utes got some early work out of Cole Bajema, who hit a deep jumper for the first points of the game, and Utah jumped to a 12-3 lead before BYU settled in to keep the score under double digits for a majority of the first half.
But just like the beginning of the game, the Runnin' Utes used a strong final few minutes to erase a Cougars push that cut the Utah lead to 5. Erickson banked in a 3-pointer as he was fouled, hit the ensuing free throw, and Utah pushed the lead to 45-31 at the halftime break.
BYU utilized a zone defense in the second half, which limited Utah's ability to get the same looks they were getting in the first half. And as a result, Utah went on a shooting slump, where the Utes made just 1-of-10 field-goal attempts during the stretch that extended into more than seven minutes without a field goal.
BYU cut the lead to 2 points with just over five minutes left in the game after the Cougars experienced its own struggles from the floor where the team was 2-of-12 during that same stretch. The Cougars, though, could never get over the hump.
"They got going early in the second half a little bit and it was all offensive rebounds," Smith said. "They were missing a lot of shots, but we weren't getting the rebounds. And when you have a team that shoots as many threes as them, long shots equal long rebounds.
"I think we had 13 points in the first 13 minutes, and it just put a lot of strain on our defense, and they did a good job; they were much more aggressive."
Madsen led Utah with 17 points, including five made 3-pointer and the game-saving triple, four rebounds and three assists as Utah finished the day shooting 49% from the field and 31% from 3-point range.
Branden Carlson, who was a game-time decision due to an injury, finished with 15 points and eight rebounds, and Keita added 10 points and six rebounds in the win.
Jaxon Robinson led BYU with 17 points, including a clutch 3-pointer late in the game to cut into Utah's lead with under a minute left to play. Four other BYU players finished in double digits on a night when the Cougars were held to only seven 3-pointers — the team averages 12.9 per game — and finished shooting 37% from the field.
"I think we were a little nervous about this rivalry game; we had so much emotion that it spilled into the wrong areas of the game," said BYU's Spencer Johnson, who finished with a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds. "We had a really solid game plan coming in, and we just got sidetracked. That's something that we can take going forward, to just stay focused through the whole thing."
