Fort Collins, Colo. » Colorado State's Marcus Walker had the ball in his hands as the final seconds ticked off the clock at Moby Arena on Wednesday night, and he knew just what he wanted to do with it.

Unfortunately for him, so did Utah's Luke Nevill.

The 7-foot-2 senior center blocked Walker's potential game-winning runner, then scored eight of his 23 points in overtime to help rescue the Utes from a largely sluggish effort against a fired-up Colorado State team and deliver an 89-79 victory in front of 2,246 fans (including former All-American Keith Van Horn) that kept them in first place in the Mountain West Conference.

"I kind of knew that Walker was going to take the last shot," Nevill said, "so I just kind of corralled him, like coach says, just stay in front of him and just try to alter the shot at the rim."

In so doing, he might have saved a championship season.

After all, losing would have been disastrous, ending the Utes' six-game winning streak, potentially costing them their league lead and staining their NCAA Tournament résumé with another bad loss. The Rams entered the game in eighth place in the nine-team Mountain West, having lost six of their last seven games --- and four straight against the Utes.

But they gave the Utes all they wanted, hanging onto a lead until the final seven minutes, when the Utes finally finished making up an early 10-point deficit. Point guard Tyler Kepkay was a huge reason, scoring 20 of his career-high 27 points in the second half to fuel the comeback.

"I don't think my team totally understands yet that we're on the top of the Mountain West, and people are going to give us a great shot when we come in their building," coach Jim Boylen said. "Their energy to start the game was awesome. They were tougher than us to start the game. They were more physical than us to start the game, and it took us awhile to get going. But when we did, we were very good."

Like in overtime.

Seemingly relieved at getting a second chance, the Utes dominated from the opening tip, scoring six straight points to seize control, and making all 10 of their free throws to win their second overtime game of the season and improve to 19-7 overall.

At 10-2 in the league, they're assured of taking at least a one-game lead into their final four, starting next week against UNLV. The Rams fell to 8-18 overall and 3-9 in the Mountain West.

"They say you have to have some of these games when you're trying to win a championship," Boylen said. "You have to have some of these games where you have to win it, and win it ugly. And I thought we did that."

Nevill finished with 14 rebounds and a school-record-tying seven blocked shots --- though the stat crew seemed to mistakenly credit him for one of teammate Shaun Green's blocks -- while Kepkay simply dominated the second half. His three-pointer finally gave the Utes a lead after they had cut the deficit to within two for the fifth time, though he later missed a jumper with about 19 seconds left in regulation.

"When we got to overtime, I think we all felt like we dodged a bullet there," Kepkay said. "Now, we were calm, and it just felt like it was a zero-zero game, and we were going to win it."

mcl@sltrib.com