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Las Vegas • Of the two Utah squads battling in Sin City on Saturday, it might've come as a surprise that the one that struggled to score was the basketball team.
It was an ugly night in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, one that saw the No. 14 Runnin' Utes shoot less than 40 percent from the floor and get outworked on the glass for the first time all season.
But persistence won out: A second-half surge helped Utah (8-2) win its seventh of its last eight games in a 59-46 victory. The Rebels became the latest to fall to the Runnin' Utes' suffocating defense, and a raucous visiting crowd of Utah fans worked up by a Las Vegas Bowl win earlier in the day helped make the MGM feel a bit like home.
The strains of a "Let's go Utes" chant rocked the arena by the late second half, when the Utes led by as much as 13.
"It's a lot of love," Brandon Taylor said. "I have a lot of respect and love for our fans. They didn't have to drive all the way down here, but it was a lot of fans out there and they made it feel like a home crowd."
The Utes were led by Delon Wright's 17 points, but it could be said that Taylor was the heart behind the night. The junior guard was 7 for 12 for 16 points, one of only two Utes who made better than half his attempts, and added three assists and three rebounds.
But Utah's real edge was defense. UNLV struggled for buckets, hitting only 33 percent from the floor and racking up 15 turnovers. Leading scorer Rashad Vaughn had 16 points on 6 for 16 shooting, and no one else scored more than 9. While the Utes were out-rebounded — much to Larry Krystkowiak's chagrin — their defense was more consistent throughout.
"It's been something to fall back on," Wright said. "We're not going to always play good on offense, and we've struggled at times. If we can rely on our defense, that'll help us win a lot of games."
Utah took control on a Poeltl-led surge, as the freshman scored 6 points in a 10-1 run that put Utah up by double digits for the first time with eight minutes left in the game. Poeltl struggled with foul trouble for most of the night but chipped in key second-half points late as well to seal up the game.
Utah shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half. Krystkowiak was happy with the way the Utes worked through offensive frustration, even if he was frustrated at times himself.
"We weren't challenging the rim and [we were] taking some ill-advised shots," Krystkowiak said. "[In the second half] I thought we were far more patient and kind of stuck with it."
Krystkowiak compared the game to a heavyweight fight, referencing the grind-it-out flow. But there was also a lot of physicality: Both teams visited the line often, taking 44 combined free throws and only making half of them.
Incredibly, Utah entered the locker room with a one-point lead after a first half in which they were out-shot and out-rebounded. Despite making only 28 percent of their attempts in the first half, Wright helped lead a late rally at the end of the half, scoring his first two field goals in the final minute of the half.
The last basket of the first period came in transition, as Wright sunk a reverse layup a blink before the buzzer.
With Utah's posts struggling to score against UNLV's long-armed shot blockers, Taylor lit up for 8 of the team's first 11 points. But it was rugged going after that, as the Utes shot only 28 percent in the first half. At one point late in the first half, Utah went nearly nine minutes without a field goal.
Twitter: @kylegoon Runnin' Utes win with defense
• Utah holds UNLV to 32.7 percent shooting
• UNLV turns the ball over 15 times
• Delon Wright scores 17, Brandon Taylor has 16