- Utah's Terrance Brown scored a career-high 36 points in a 92-89 OT win.
- Brown's performance helped Utah overcome a 10-point deficit against Weber State.
- Coach Jensen emphasized learning from the game despite early struggles and defensive lapses.
SALT LAKE CITY — An in-state meeting against a sub-300 rated team, according to KenPom, didn't go as planned for Alex Jensen's Runnin' Utes Saturday night.
Weber State erased an early Utah 4-point lead with a 16-2 run to take complete control of the game on their opponent's floor.
Utah was outrebounded 27-13 and allowed too many easy layups with a porous interior defense — the Wildcats had 32 points in the post — in the first half as Weber State owned a 7-point halftime lead.
Utah had fought back late in the first half to tie up the game a couple times after hitting eight consecutive shots, including a pair of 3-pointers, but Weber State continued to apply the pressure to closeout the half and build up another lead.
Weber State continued that momentum through the second half, building up a 10-point lead with a pair of 3-pointers, but Utah slowly cut into the lead before Don McHenry drained a corner 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left to play in regulation to tie up the game.
"I feel like he's just a clutch player," Utah guard Terrance Brown said of McHenry. "He comes from a winning program up at Western Kentucky. He hit a bunch of crazy shots there, too. ... So I already knew he was a crazy shot maker, and that's why I put my trust into him when I passed it to him at the corner.
"Coach told me just to get downhill, find a shooter, and he was the first person I seen. So I didn't even hesitate to pass it to him."
Weber State's final heave — though on target — just missed and the two in-state opponents went into an early-season overtime.
In the extra period, Brown continued his career night, scoring 4 quick points to give the Runnin' Utes its first lead since the opening minutes of the game. The Utes then used that momentum, along with a better defensive effort in the post, to come away with a 92-89 overtime win.
It wasn't the expected result, but it was a win nevertheless.
"This is a big game for Weber, especially for local kids; and this is kind of like their Super Bowl in a way, and we can't take them lightly," Utah head coach Alex Jensen said. "But that's kind of been the message I try to tell them: No matter who the opponent is, the opponent should be yourself and your ability.
"Are you trying as hard as you can? Are you thinking the game? Are you thinking about the team? So a lot to learn, but I'm glad. I'm happy for our guys. They found a way. So hopefully you can build on that going forward."
Brown finished with a career-high 36 points, including going 10-of-15 from the free-throw line, and added four rebounds and three assists in the gritty win. His fellow guard, McHenry, supplied an additional 26 points, including four made 3-pointers, and six rebounds.
Keanu Dawes added 11 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out with just over a minute left in overtime. His defensive presence, especially in the overtime period, helped secure the win.
Weber State had five players score in double figures, including a team-high 15 points and three rebounds from Jace Whiting, while having 11 different players make a shot in the game.
Coming out of the halftime break, Brown went on a personal 7-0 run to help Utah cut the lead to 1, but Weber State denied any further run and continued to slowly build up the lead to double digits, with little hope for a Utah surge after a pair of 3-pointers with about eight minutes left to play.
Utah, however, took advantage of three consecutive turnovers by Weber State late in the game and cut a 10-point deficit down to 3 on a corner 3-pointer from McHenry that sent the Huntsman Center crowd to its feet.
But like much of the night, Weber State weathered the storm. Even when Utah cut the lead to 1 with about a minute left to play, Weber State's Trevor Henning hit a big 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a 4-point lead. But McHenry's shot with 3.5 seconds left to play was enough.
"They were well prepared, did a good job," Jensen said. "I think we did a good job responding in the second half, and we found a way to win. ... We responded, but fortunate to get the win."
Jensen said his team had "little mental lapses" in the first half that contributed to the easy Weber State scoring and rebounds not going their way, while trying to force a few things on the offensive side of the ball. But the team came together, he said, and found a way to dig the team out of the hole it created.
"Rebounding is just a matter of who — there's not a technique, it's just a who wants it more and thinking about it," Jensen said.
The early test — and not one the team was necessarily expecting — will help the team grow, Jensen said. But he'd prefer to not be in that situation as the season gets more difficult.
"I think it just tested how much heart we've got, how much love we've got for the game," Brown added. "We could have easily broke down. ... I think that really just questioned, like, how much we love the game, how much we really want this as a team. So that's really what I was saying in the locker room, and what I was saying to the team and in the huddle towards the end, like, do you guys really want this or we just going to quit?"
In the end, Utah found a way, but it was far from a perfect outing.
