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SALT LAKE CITY — Stepping onto the Huntsman Center floor Saturday night was equivalent to stepping into the ring of a WWE title bout ... or so it felt.
Rivals BYU and Utah fought for every inch in the first of a two-game conference series between the two teams some 40 miles apart. And though both teams shared their chances at a lead in the game, it was Utah that came out on top in a 73-72 win in overtime on the Runnin' Utes' home floor.
"These rivalry games, man, you just throw everything out the door; it's just how it is," Utah head coach Craig Smith said. "And the way it ended, I'm not sure it was surprising to anybody. And fortunately for us, we were able to make one more play at the end of the day."
The Cougars controlled a game-high 8-point lead early in the second half before Lawson Lovering and Ezra Ausar took control of the game. And BYU had no answer for the two bigs in the post as the duo willed Utah (11-6, 3-3 Big 12) on a 12-2 run to give the home team a 4-point lead.
"It was just really counting on myself," Ausar said. "To me, it was just confidence. I've just been kind of fighting my own emotions and feelings, and the best just came out. And I feel like I've still got more to go, so I'm just proud of the performance, and I'm gonna take it in and let it marinate."
From there, it was just a matter of staying on top for the Utes, who staved off several BYU (11-6, 2-4 Big 12) attempts to reclaim the lead. The Cougars shot only 38% from the field and 40% from the free-throw line to doom their chances.
But still, the Cougars had a chance at the end.
For a brief stint, BYU took a lead before Ausar go open for a go-ahead dunk. On the other end, he collected a rebound and was immediately fouled to send him to the free-throw line. Ausar split the pair to control a 2-point lead, but BYU's Fousseyni Traore answered with a second-chance bucket on the other end to tie up the game.
Utah's game-winning attempt in regulation fell short to send the game into overtime.
In overtime, BYU jumped to a 3-point lead as Utah struggled to consistently hit from the free-throw line. But Hunter Erickson drained a deep 3-pointer to tie up the game again, and then went 3-of-4 from the free-throw line to lift Utah to the narrow lead.
On Erickson's second attempt, he airballed the shot. But he got his revenge on the next trip to the line and sank the pair to keep Utah in the game.
"I've never seen Hunter airball a shot — I'm sure he has," Smith said. "But to have the courage to come off the ball screen with whatever time left and then just explode into the paint and get fouled and swish them both — after coming off an airball — it's hard to do."
Added Erickson: "I know I'm a good free-throw shooter; I'm a good shooter all around. I've got confidence in myself, so in those moments, you don't have time to think about what's happened, you've just got to move on to the next and be in the present. So I just did that the best I could, and it worked out.
With five seconds left in overtime, Keanu Dawes was sent to the line and missed both attempts, and BYU's last-second heave by Egor Demin from 3-point range, with Dawes and his outstretched arms in his face, fell short.
"Hard fought game," BYU head coach Kevin Young said. "They made plays down the stretch, we came up short. iI thought our defense in the middle part of the second half let us down a little bit. We adjusted, and they made plays.
"We're right there in all these games," he added. "We've got a chance to win. I just told our club in there, you win and lose games on the margins in close games, and we've come up short too many times, and that's disappointing."
Ausar led the Utes in arguably his best performance with the team with 26 points, six rebounds and two assists. Lovering added 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a strong performance for the big.
"Ausar was a beast in there; we had a hard time with him," Young said. "He got going a little bit, but a lot of it was just we were overhelping. We wanted Lovering to beat us. We weren't worried about him being able to beat us. We wanted to foul him if he got close to the basket, and there was a couple of the assists that he had on dump off to him, or misses around the rim, and we were trying to help when we should have just been worrying about getting a rebound from the other guys."
In the end, the Cougars were outrebounded 47-44 despite holding a three-rebound advantage at the halftime break.
The Cougars were led in scoring by Richie Saunders, who finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and was joined by Fousseyni Traore adding 16 points and six rebounds in the loss.
In his return to the Huntsman Center after transferring to BYU over the offseason, Keba Keita finished with 4 points, nine rebounds and three blocks against his former team.
Utah is now on a three-game winning streak in the Big 12, while BYU has won one of their last five games. For Smith, he sees a Utah team that is starting to finally figure out how to play well together in a competitive conference.
"These guys are growing up," he said. "There's a lot of guys that haven't won at a very high level, and they're starting to figure out how to win. And that can be hard to do, because there's selflessness that goes in there, there's sacrifice that goes into it. There's a level of physical and mental toughness that is a big part of this thing, specifically mental toughness and understanding what we're trying to do.
"And so I'm really, really proud of them, because they kept throwing haymakers and we kept throwing them back. And we just found enough, found a way to win that game."
