The Good & The Bad from BYU Basketball's Victory Over Utah

A few days after suffering a close loss against Boise State, BYU bounced back with a dominant victory of rival Utah. Here is the good and the bad from Mark Pope's first victory over Utah:

The good

BYU has struggled offensively early in games this season, the Cougars got off to a much better start against the Utes.
Kolby Lee hitting shots from beyond the arc and dunking basketballs is a beautiful sight to see, Lee had seven points on four shots in the first half.

Spencer Johnson has provided a shooting spark off the bench this season. Johnson had a pair of threes in the first half.
BYU went on a 10-0 run in the first half thanks to great individual efforts from various players: Brandon Averette played good perimeter defense to create a transition opportunity for Kolby Lee, Averette followed it up with a three on the next possession. Later, an Alex Barcello steal created another possession for BYU that Hardward capitalized on with reverse lay in on the other end.

Caleb Lohner hit his first shot from beyond the arc in the Marriott Center
Hardward with a beautiful drop step for a three-point play the old fashioned way. Harward also made an impact on the defensive end against the Utes.
Overall, great perimeter defense by BYU in the first half. Utah was forced to take tough shots and they shot 31% in the first half as a result
Caleb Lohner tried to put Jantunen on a poster. When was the last time a BYU player attempted something like that?

Curly Mamba almost took someones life here. pic.twitter.com/Cw1zst84GM
— Boney Fuller (@boneyfuller) December 12, 2020

BYU took a 40-27 lead into halftime
On the first possession of the second half, Matt Haarms converted an and-one shot to extend the lead to 16
Excellent effort by Richard Harward to scrap for a rebound and get a bucket when Utah started a little run in the second half.
I could have copied and pasted the bullet above a few more times. Harward played an excellent game on Saturday. Harward had a career high 15 points on 7/7 shooting against the Utes.
After struggling defensively to start the second half (Utah shot over 70% from the field) BYU got a series of six stops in a row to extend the lead to 18. BYU controlled the game the rest of the way.
The aforementioned defense created a 10-0 run for BYU.
Connor Harding played a really good game. Harding had career high 17 points on 6/8 shooting.
Spencer Johnson finished with 16 points on 6/11 shooting including 4/8 from deep.
BYU outscored Utah 36 to 24 in the paint.
Final score: BYU beat Utah by a score of 82 to 64.

The bad

BYU allowed a few open three-point shots in the early going - Utah capitalized on a handful in the first few minutes of the game.
Too many turnovers in the early going for BYU - the Cougars had nine turnovers in the first half.
Brandon Averette picked up his fourth foul early in the second half. Averette would foul out with six minutes remaining.
Alex Barcello was not as sharp as we have seen him this season. Barcello only had five points on Saturday night with four turnovers.
Utah cut BYU's lead from 16 to 8 in five minutes of game play - BYU was not quite as sharp in the first six minutes of the second half.
Utah ran a full-court press late in the game that gave BYU some problems, the Cougars turned it over multiple times which allowed Utah to cut into BYU's big lead.