By Cody Brunner

After last week’s loss to Southern Utah, the U men’s basketball team returned to practice with a single focus: defense.

The Utes will probably return to practice this week with the exact same focus because they were unable to stop the Santa Clara offense on the way to their second loss of the season, 83-72.

The Broncos (2-0) shot a scorching 60.4 percent from the field and used a 27-6 run late in the first half to bury the Utes, who struggled with every facet of Santa Clara’s offense.

“Until we take pride in our guarding, nothing is going to change,” said U head coach Ray Giacoletti. “Although we didn’t make the smartest decisions at times offensively, it’s about one area right now for us and that’s defense.”

Utah (0-2) could not stop the inside-out tandem of forward Sean Denison and guard Calvin Johnson. Denison beat up the U low-post defense for 20 points and Johnson made shot after shot on his way to 18 points.

“We have to understand the scouting report,” Giacoletti said. “He shot 5-for-9 from threes and our job is to make him put it on the floor.”

The Utes got themselves on track early in the game, using a pair of Shaun Green three-pointers to take a 17-10 lead, but the Broncos came back with a huge run to take a 37-27 lead into the break.

Despite falling behind by as many as 14 points early in the second half, the Utes were able to bounce back with a 13-4 run topped off by a Johnnie Bryant three-pointer to cut the deficit to 57-54 with 10 minutes left to play.

But that is as close as the Utes were able to get as Denison and Johnson punished the Utah defense for the rest of the evening.

“They surprised me and I was glad to see it,” said Santa Clara coach Dick Davey. “I think we’re going to be a better shooting team than we’ve been in a while, which is encouraging.”

Meanwhile, the Utes started off the game shooting an abysmal 36 percent from the field, but improved drastically in the second half, shooting 68.4 percent to finish the game.

Sophomore center Luke Nevill led the U offense with 17 points and also snagged nine rebounds in the losing effort. Preseason Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year Stephen Weight had another solid outing for the Utes, picking up 15 points. Bryant also pitched a decent game for the U, scoring 12 points on 3-for-5 shooting. Bryant, who grew up in Oakland, Calif., said he was unhappy with his return.

“It was disappointing to come home and lose, but we’ve got to bounce back Tuesday night (at home against Colorado),” Bryant said. “We’ve got to talk on defense and we’ve got to take care of the little things. We’ve got to make it tough on them to get shots off.”

Utah will try to bounce back from the loss and pick up its first win of the season at home tomorrow against Colorado. The Buffaloes started off the season with a win over Denver University, but have since fallen hard, losing to Air Force and New Mexico by a total of 79 points.

Lennie Mahler

Freshman Stephen Weigh scored 15 points in the Utes’ second loss of the season against Santa Clara on Saturday.