Locked in a tight battle with barely five minutes left against Air Force at Clune Arena on Saturday, guard Luka Drca missed a three-pointer. But teammate Shaun Green grabbed the rebound. Seconds later, Johnnie Bryant missed a jumper. But teammate Carlon Brown grabbed the rebound. And when Luke Nevill missed yet another jumper?

You guessed it: Green grabbed yet another offensive rebound, allowing Drca to finally bury a three-pointer that helped propel the Utes to a 67-59 victory.

"That's a huge play," coach Jim Boylen said. "Offensive rebounds were something that we knew we had to get. You have to try to get extra possessions against that defense, because it's so stingy down there."

The Utes knew that, yet managed only one offensive rebound in the first half, same as the smaller Falcons.

But after trailing 30-20 at halftime, the energized Utes seemed to corral every miss, gobbling up an astonishing 11 offensive rebounds in the second half while denying the Falcons a single one. That contributed to a 36-18 rebounding edge overall - their biggest margin since the season-opener against South Carolina Upstate - and the first Utah victory here in three years.

"They had two or three possessions that were difficult for us," Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. "I thought our guys held their composure, but Utah's toughness was the difference."

Brown grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds for the Utes, while Green added 10. And by virtue of all their extra chances, the Utes tied a season-best by scoring 47 points in the second half to pull away.

"It was an effort thing," Brown said. Assistant coach Jeff Smith "told me, told Shaun, told Kim [Tillie] that we had to dive to the offensive glass. We did that, and we got the ball and were able to pull it out and get second-chance points."

mcl@sltrib.com