His Utah Utes scored only five baskets in the entire first half of their Mountain West Conference opener against Air Force at the Huntsman Center on Saturday, and all five of them were three-pointers by the same guy - senior guard Johnnie Bryant.

Yet while Bryant rescued the Utes from the latest in a growing series of torturous starts - no other Ute made a basket until about two minutes into the second half - it was ultimately their defense against a usually precise and patient Falcon passing scheme that delivered a 58-36 victory in front of 10,144 fans.

"I thought we were pretty solid," Boylen said.

Pretty solid?

The arena stairs are pretty solid. The Utes were astounding, in an inelegant, grass-stains-on-your-pants kind of way.

While Bryant wound up with a season-high 22 points off the bench, the 9-4 Utes held the Falcons to 3-for-18 shooting in the second half - that's 16.7 percent, people - and forced a team that strives to milk the shot clock and play as few possessions as possible into wasted opportunity after wasted opportunity.

"We shot the ball too quick in the second half," Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. "The shots didn't fall and we didn't play as well on the defensive end."

The 8-5 Falcons scored just 13 points after halftime, and wound up with their worst offensive game of the season and fourth straight road loss. Not since a 45-35 victory over the Falcons nearly five years ago had the Utes held a team to so few points.

"We hung in there, when our offense wasn't going," Boylen said. "Our defense kept us in there, which is the way we want to play. We want to be a defensive team first, and let our offense come around. I thought it did."

Eventually, anyway.

The Utes went nearly eight agonizing minutes without a basket to start the game in their latest sonorous start - the teams combined for six points in the first six minutes - missing their first six shots and committing four turnovers in that span.

Bryant finally snapped the drought with 12:10 left, and buried four more bombs before halftime.

"My teammates did a great job looking for me," Bryant said. "They penetrated great for me."

And while the Utes did not get many baskets off that penetration of the Air Force zone defense, they did get to the free-throw line.

The Utes made 14 of 17 in the first half alone, helping them build a 29-23 halftime lead that they extended once Bryant received some help in the second half.

"We've had some poor starts to second halves," Boylen said. "And I thought our start this half was pretty good."

Forward Shaun Green became the first Ute other than Bryant to make a field goal when he hit a three-pointer for his team's first points of the second half, then followed it up with the team's first two-point baskets of the game on back-to-back layups.

That gave the Utes a 36-28 lead with 16 minutes left, and the Utes pulled away from there, allowing Air Force baskets only about every five minutes or so.

The Falcons did not make a field goal in the final 6:31, in fact, and Utah's Lawrence Borha held leading scorer Tim Anderson to seven points on 1-for-7 shooting - just days after Anderson erupted for 30 in a loss at Wake Forest.

Center Luke Nevill did not make a basket for the Utes until the 9:12 mark of the second half, and finished with a season-low seven points.

But he did grab 10 rebounds and become the 19th player in school history to compile 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in his career.

"We'll take it," Boylen said.

mcl@sltrib.com

* IN SHORT: The Utes win their fifth straight home game by beating Air Force 58-36 with their best defensive showing in nearly five years.

* KEY STAT: The Falcons shoot just 3-for-18 in the second half.

* KEY MOMENT: Utah's Shaun Green scores eight straight points early in the second half to break the game open.