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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Johnnie Bryant tied his career-high of 28 points as Utah defeated Rice 80-64 on Saturday night to avoid starting a season 0-4 for the first time in 54 years.
Early on, it looked as if the Utes were on their way to the historically bad start. Utah shot 40 percent in the first half and trailed by nine points at halftime.
But Bryant and Shaun Green were hot in the second half and the Utes made a bigger commitment to playing defense. Bryant scored 17 points and Green had 12 points and two 3-pointers in the second half.
Utah also held Rice (2-4) to 25 points and 35 percent shooting from the field in the second half, after allowing the Owls to shoot 54 percent in the first half.
Rice wasted another superb effort from forward Morris Almond, who scored 42 points. Almond, who entered the game with a 26.8 points per game scoring average, made his first eight field-goal attempts and first seven foul shots.
Utah took the game's momentum early in the second half after Rice's Paulius Packevicius picked up a technical foul for shoving Green. At the time, the Utes were closing the gap on Rice's big halftime lead, and only trailed by three points.
After Packevicius' shove, Utah closed out a 15-0 run to take a 55-46 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Green finished with a career-high 17 points and nine rebounds.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-11-25-06 2056MST
