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The University of Utah Athletics
Friday, March 10
Las Vegas (MWC Tournament)
7:00 PM MT
University of Utah
54
at
58
BYU
Utes Upset By BYU, 58-54
3/10/2000 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 10, 2000
By TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Eric Nielsen had a career-high 17 points and Brigham Young held Utah without a field goal for more than seven minutes late in the game to beat the Utes 58-54 on Friday night in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament.
Nielsen, who averaged only 5.3 points, gave BYU (20-9) a 54-46 lead on his final basket with 2:20 left, and the Cougars held on to beat Utah for the first time in three games this year.
Utah shot miserably to open the game and again in the second half, making only eight of 32 second half attempts.
One of those came when Nate Althoff tied the game 42-42 with 8:40 left. But Utah didn't make another field goal until Hanno Mottola hit a 3-pointer with 1:30 left to bring the Utes to within 55-49.
Utah (22-8) still had a chance to tie the game, but Mottola's 3-pointer with 4.1 seconds left hit nothing. Utah got the ball back with 2.1 seconds left after Terrel Lyday missed a pair of free throws, but turned the ball over on a bad inbounds pass.
Todd Christensen made a free throw with .3 seconds left for the final margin.
Lyday added 16 points for BYU, while Mottola led Utah with 17 points. Althoff had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Utes.
The win over BYU's instate rival put the Cougars into Saturday's MWC final against the winner of UNLV-Wyoming.
Utah started the night badly, not making a field goal until Jeremy Killion hit a 3-pointer with almost five minutes gone in the game.
It was another four minutes before the Utes could make another.
In its 15 possessions to open the game, Utah made one of 10 field goal attempts, had two shots blocked and turned the ball over three times.
Still, Utah went on a run to end the first half and went into halftime leading 30-26.
That lead didn't last long, however, as BYU opened the second half with a 12-3 run to take a lead the Cougars would not relinquish.
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