Don't let Mrs. Johns leave.

Pay for the hotel, let her sleep on the couch - whatever it takes - because it's pretty clear that when senior guard Ricky Johns knows his mother is watching from the crowd, he simply cannot be stopped. He showed it Thursday as he scored 30 points in the Utes' 74-68 win over San Diego State.

"It felt really good to play my best basketball," he said, smiling.

You think?

In the final home game of his college career, with his mother, sister and several other relatives among the 9,036 fans at the Huntsman Center, Johns did not just play his best game of the season. Or his best game in college. He might have played the best game of his entire life - making an astonishing 11 of 13 shots from all over the floor, including six of seven three-pointers, to score 30 points and lead the Utes to a 74-68 victory over San Diego State on Tuesday night.

"He put us on his back," coach Ray Giacoletti said. "It was almost like a movie script tonight."

Nah . . . not even the most hackneyed screenwriter would have come up with this - especially the part where Johns not only buries his fourth straight three-pointer to start the second half, but gets knocked down doing it and makes a free throw while the crowd goes wild to keep the Aztecs at a safe distance.

"It felt really good, the ball felt really good," Johns explained. "Coming out of my hand, the release felt fine, my stroke felt good. . . . I definitely surprised them. I'm sure they weren't looking for me to come out and get 30 on them."

Yeah, safe to say.

The Aztecs were the hottest team in the Mountain West Conference, having won seven of their last eight games and coming off a pounding of Brigham Young in which guard Brandon Heath scored 30 points (for the second straight game) and forward Mohamed Abukar added 27.

But while Abukar and Heath combined for 43 points against the Utes, they scored most of them while trying to come back from a 32-19 halftime deficit. The Utes held the Aztecs to 34.7 percent shooting in the first half - Abukar and Heath were a combined 4-for-15 - and went into halftime on a 17-4 run.

"We just had to keep scoring, and keep trying to pad that lead," center Luke Nevill said.

That, they did.

Although the defense wilted quite a bit after halftime, the Utes - er, Johns - continued the torrid shooting pace. Johns actually would have set a school record after making his first six three-pointers, too, but he missed his final attempt.

"Finally, we said, 'Let's see if we can keep him under 100,' " Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said. "He didn't do too much down the stretch, but the damage had been done."

Johns did miss a foul shot with 45 seconds left - part of a 4-for-9 performance by the Utes from the line in the final 1:10 that could have cost them the game, had the Aztecs made a couple more shots in that span.

But in the end, the Utes survived to improve to 11-17 overall and 6-9 in the league and retain a hope of earning the fifth or sixth seed in the league tournament next month. The Aztecs fell to 20-9 and 9-6 in the league, and suffered a serious blow to their hopes of earning an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Not that the Utes care.

They had Johns to admire.

"What's crazy is, most experiences with senior night - in my past, anyway - guys start pressing so hard that they end up having tough nights," Giacoletti said. "I'm just so happy and proud of him. He's the most loyal guy on our team. Even when he got a little bit in the doghouse his first year and I was hard on him, there was nobody who came to practice any harder. He's a good teammate . . . and I couldn't be any happier for him."

mcl@sltrib.comUtah 74, SDSU 68

FG FT Reb

Utah Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Green 28 2-4 1-2 1-4 2 0 5

Nevill 32 7-9 2-3 2-11 2 1 16

Bryant 34 4-11 0-0 1-4 7 1 8

Borha 21 3-7 1-1 0-2 2 5 7

Johns 33 11-13 2-3 0-4 1 0 30

Eatmon 7 1-1 0-0 0-1 1 2 2

Drca 8 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Weigh 18 1-3 3-6 0-0 0 1 5

Deane 18 0-3 1-2 0-5 0 2 1

Foster 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 200 29-52 10-17 5-32 15 13 74

Percentages: FG .558, FT.588. Three-Point Goals: 6-16, .375 (Green 0-2, Bryant 0-5, Borha 0-1, Johns 6-7, Drca 0-1). Team Rebounds: 32. Blocked Shots: 3 (Nevill 2). Turnovers: 15 (Borha 5). Steals: 3 (Green, Nevill, Deane). Technical Fouls: None.

FG FT Reb

SDSU Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Habel 29 4-8 0-0 0-3 1 1 8

Wade 32 2-5 0-0 0-1 3 3 5

Abukar 38 9-17 5-6 8-10 0 3 24

Heath 39 8-19 0-0 0-5 3 4 19

Williams 33 3-6 0-0 1-4 7 4 8

Johnson 3 0-0 0-2 1-1 0 1 0

Lamb 5 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 1 0

Spain 21 2-3 0-1 1-2 2 3 4

Totals 200 28-58 5-9 6-29 16 20 68

Percentages: FG .483, FT .556. Three-Point Goals: 7-18, .389 (Wade 1-2, Abukar 1-2, Heath 3-9, Williams 2-4, Spain 0-1). Team Rebounds: 29. Blocked Shots: 3 (Habel, Abukar, Heath). Turnovers: 14 (Wade 7). Steals: 8 (Wade 3). Technical Fouls: None.

San Diego State 19 49 - 68

Utah 32 42 - 74

A - 9,036. T - 7:05. Officials: David Hall, Larry Spaulding, Bobby McRoy.