LAS VEGAS8212;The final three minutes of the Utah-TCU game is what March Madness is all about. Particularly the final shot.
With less than 20 seconds left in the game, and the game tied at 58-58, Ute point guard Luka Drca controlled the ball at the top of the perimeter, and then drove it with eight seconds left in the game. After drawing the double team as he sliced to the basket, Drca threw the ball to Lawrence Borha on the left wing, who proceeded to knock down a game winning 3-pointer of the game to beat the Horned Frogs, 61-58.
“Hope this goes in when it goes up and when it goes in I’m just relieved and excited that it went in,” Borha said about the thought process in the game winning shot. “It felt good, but a lot of my shots felt good, so I wasn’t sure.”
The heroics will go to Borha for knocking down three of his 10 points when Utah needed it, but it was forward Shaun Green that put the Utes into position to do so.
At the 3:13 mark in the second half, Green had made back-to-back 3-pointers to break the game open for Utah 54-49. Green finished the game with 14 points.
“The past couple weeks my shot’s felt really good,” Green said.
Zvonko Bulijan and Ronnie Moss would get the Horned Frogs back into the contest after the 3s by Green. In the final two minutes, Moss scored five points and could have made it seven but he missed a huge layup in the paint with 28 seconds left in regulation after a TCU timeout. Bulijan scored four points in that same time frame, including a long two that took the lead for the Horned Frogs 56-58 with 1:03 left in the game.
Bulijan finished the game with game highs in points (20) and rebounds (7).
“Bulijan’s a tough nut,” Boylen said. “I like guys like that and Moss is just a gamer. He is as good off the bounce as anybody I’ve seen at this level, anywhere. The future is bright for TCU.”
The Utes had to go small for the majority of the first half due to untimely fouls by Nevill and Tillie. Grim saw his first action in six weeks at the 4:39 mark, and was vital to the run that Kepkay made.
With 3:31 remaining in the first half, Kepkay scored seven straight for the Utes, giving them the lead 27-24. Both teams would add another bucket, closing out the half 29-26.
“It was huge for us,” Green said. “TCU hung tough with us through the first half, Luke was on the bench, they made a bunch of runs and Tyler, like he’s done all year, made shot after shot.”
Nevill didn’t have the best game of his career, but just as he has all season, created space and made plays for his teammates. Nevill was one-of-two from the field, but was clutch from the line knocking down all eight of his attempts.
The mini goals that Boylen sets for each game: rebounding, free throws and a low field goal percentage for their opponents. Utah outrebounded TCU 29 to 25, tied the free throw makes with 19 and held the Horned Frogs to 37 percent shooting from the field.
Utah will play the winner of the New Mexico-Wyoming game, which was the late game of the MWC quarterfinals on Thursday. BYU defeated Air Force and San Diego State upset host UNLV in other tournament scores for the day.
