Six-foot-10 senior forward Britton Johnsen became the 29th Ute to eclipse the 1,000-point mark for his career Monday night.
Johnsen’s historic bucket came on a fastbreak dunk with 11:07 to go. Point guard Marc Jackson received an outlet pass from rebounder Richard Chaney, and hit a streaking Johnsen. Johnsen took a dribble and threw down a two-handed jam between two defenders, giving the Utes a 16-15 advantage.
Johnsen finished the game with 12 points on 5-11 shooting (2-4 from 3-point range) in Utah’s 86-80 overtime win. It was Johnsen’s 15th double-digit scoring game in the 22 games he has played in this year.
When Johnsen was notified of his milestone, he said, “Yeah, but didn’t [Keith] Van Horn have like 2,500?”
“It’s not a big deal–I don’t really care,” he said.
Though Johnsen stressed he does simply what is needed to get Utah the “W,” he joins a prestigious list of Utes to surpass the mark. The Philadelphia 76ers’ Van Horn is atop the list at 2,542. Other notable Utes on the 1,000+ list include Jimmy Soto, Alex Jensen, Hanno Mottola, Michael Doleac, Tom Chambers, Jeff Judkins, Josh Grant and Billy McGill, who led the nation in scoring in the 1961-62 season with 38.8 points per game.
Johnsen stands at 1,008 points for his career, and if he continues on his current rate, he’ll challenge Byron Wilson’s spot for 26th on the list.
Timmy
Though freshman starting point Tim Drisdom guard has seen decreasing playing time in conference play with the emergence of backup Marc Jackson, his clutch play may have been the difference in Utah’s victory Monday.
No two plays in the game were as important as Drisdom’s two buckets midway through the extra period. Drisdom hit a clutch three off a high pick-and-roll to give Utah a 76-70 edge halfway through the quarter. Two possessions later, Drisdom’s driving layup with two seconds on the shot clock gave Utah a 78-71 lead with 1:07 left.
“He did a good job on both sides of the ball, particularly defensively. The jump shot was big certainly and the layup was big,” coach Rick Majerus said.
Drisdom went 4-4 from the field and 6-6 from the free throw line for a career-high 17 points, and he played all five minutes of overtime.
Around the Mountain
In other Mountain West action Monday night, BYU defeated San Diego State 66-64. BYU improved to 7-2 in conference, as it lost at UNLV 61-54 last week. BYU is the only other MWC team to receive votes in the weekly Associated Press Top 25 poll, though it only received three votes.