Utah Gets a Foul Victory to Rule the Neighborhood

While the nation’s eyes were on the Duke-North Carolina, No. 1 vs. No. 2 neighborhood rivalry, another neighborhood was settling things Thursday night in Salt Lake City.

Or unsettling things.

No. 5 Utah (19-1, 7-1 in the Western Athletic Conference) made 33 of 39 free throws in an 83-68 victory over Brigham Young (6-16, 1-7).

A day after WAC Commissioner Karl Benson criticized his conference’s officials for inconsistent work, 54 fouls were called and a combined 75 free throws were shot in a game in which the Utes trudged to a convincing victory over their archrivals.

“I’ve been to a brat-fest, a beer-fest and a German-fest, but this was just a foul-fest,” said Utah Coach Rick Majerus, who spent some time at Marquette in Milwaukee and who won his 199th game at Utah. “When they’re calling fouls like that, you can’t do anything as a team. . . . It makes for a pretty brutal game.”

Michael Doleac had 18 points and nine rebounds and made all nine of his free throws for Utah. Hanno Mottola added 14 points for the Utes.

Mekeli Wesley made all 11 of his free throws and finished with 28 points for BYU, which has lost six in a row by an average of 13 points. Ron Selleaze scored 11 points before fouling out.

There were 33 fouls in the second half alone, which took nearly two hours to play.

No. 12 New Mexico 89, Wyoming 59--Lamont Long scored 23 points and the Lobos made 13 three-point baskets in a victory at Albuquerque.

Long, hampered by a series of injuries in recent weeks, made eight of 14 shots and led a torrid New Mexico offense that scored virtually at will against the slower, smaller Cowboys.

The Lobos (17-3, 7-1 in the WAC) made 19 of their 27 second-half shots and connected on all 13 of their two-point shots in extending their home-court winning streak to 39 games, second longest in the nation to Kansas’ 57-game streak at Allen Field House.

Wyoming (14-6, 4-4) never led.

No. 14 Arkansas 100, No. 17 Mississippi 87--Tarik Wallace scored 23 points for the Razorbacks (19-3, 8-1 in the Southeastern Conference), who moved three games ahead of Ole Miss in the Western Division of the SEC with a victory at Fayetteville, Ark.

Mississippi (14-5, 5-4) led by as many as eight points, but Wallace’s first three-point basket put Arkansas ahead, 40-38, at halftime. He capped a 12-2 run early in the second half with a three-point shot that pushed the lead to 50-42. With his next three, he gave his team its first double-digit lead, 59-48.

No. 18 Michigan 74, Northwestern 67--Jerod Ward scored 19 points for the Wolverines, who rallied from a 12-point deficit in the final nine minutes to win at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Louis Bullock added 15 points for the Wolverines (17-6, 7-3 in the Big Ten Conference), who trailed, 52-40.

After Joe Harmsen’s three-point basket gave Northwestern a 12-point lead, the Wildcats (8-11, 1-8) went 6:26 without a field goal and made only four of eight free throws in Michigan’s 18-4 run.

No. 20 Cincinnati 109, DePaul 73--The Bearcats (17-4, 8-1 in Conference USA) got 23 points from Ruben Patterson in their highest-scoring game of the season, at Rosemont, Ill.

Cincinnati beat DePaul (6-16, 2-8) for the 14th time in a row.

No. 22 George Washington 82, La Salle 65--Mike King scored 10 of his 12 points in a run that helped the Colonials make up for an 0-for-15 shooting start and cruise to victory at Philadelphia.

King converted five layups in a 26-6 spurt that gave George Washington (19-3, 8-1 in the Atlantic 10 Conference) a 41-22 halftime lead on the way to its sixth victory in a row.

Donnie Carr passed the 1,000-point mark with 24 points for La Salle (7-13, 3-8).

OTHER GAMES

Geoff Billet scored the final eight points for Rutgers (9-11, 3-9 in the Big East) and went six for six from the free-throw line in the final 59 seconds of a 71-61 victory over Notre Dame (11-8, 5-6) at Piscataway, N.J. . . . Chonsey Asbury made two free throws with 6.2 seconds to play for South Florida (14-9, 4-6 in Conference USA), which ended a losing streak to Louisville (8-15, 2-7) at nine games with a 62-60 victory at Louisville. . . . Michael Olowokandi had 31 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots for Pacific (14-8, 7-2 in the Big West Conference) in a 76-60 victory at UC Santa Barbara (7-12, 4-5). . . . James Penny scored 28 points, including two key baskets in the final minute, for Texas Christian (19-4, 9-0 in the WAC) in a 99-91 victory at Fresno State (12-8, 5-2).