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Monday, Feb. 21 12:00pm ET
Möttölä contributes 20 off the bench | |||||
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Hanno Möttölä is back in Utah's lineup, and the Runnin' Utes are once again on target to win the Mountain West's regular season title. Möttölä, listed as doubtful with strains to his left elbow and right thumb, scored 20 points in a reserve role and sparked a huge first-half surge as Utah (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today, No. 25 AP) beat UNLV 96-52 on Monday night. "This win is huge," Möttölä said. "It was real nice. This was the first time we've played this well for 40 minutes. I hope we realize what we can be. It's all about playing great defense." The victory gave the Utes (20-5, 9-2 MWC) a two-game lead over UNLV (16-7, 7-4) with three league contests remaining. The Rebels fell into a second-place tie with New Mexico because Utah played extremely well and Möttölä led the way. "Maybe he should continue to come off the bench," joked teammate Alex Jensen. "He was always running after practice for two weeks, and we kept teasing him about it. To his credit, he worked hard to come back." Phil Cullen added 19 points and Jensen 11 as Utah extended the nation's longest homecourt winning streak to 51 games. Kaspars Kambala, the only UNLV player in double figures, had 10 points. Möttölä missed Utah's previous three games because of injuries suffered during a victory at Air Force on Jan. 29. Surgery was considered, but eventually ruled out. After Utah swamped UNLV, Möttölä said he expects to be back in the lineup for the rest of the season, but Utes coach Rick Majerus disputed that. "Hanno is day to day, game to game," Majerus said. Möttölä hadn't played since a 72-66 road loss to the Rebels on Feb. 5, which ended Utah's streak of 25 straight conference victories. And the Utes seemed even more vulnerable after losing 72-65 at New Mexico on Saturday. No question the Utes are a different team with Möttölä, who drew a standing ovation when he checked in with 14:02 remaining in the first half and the Utes leading 10-6. The cheers grew louder with 11:40 on the clock when Möttölä made his first field goal on a feed from Jeff Johnsen for a 20-9 lead. From there, Möttölä simply took over. He hit a turnaround jumper on the right baseline. He split the lane for a finger-roll layup. He completed a three-point play. And after Möttölä hit two free throws with 4:55 before halftime, Utah's lead grew to 40-18. "It just snowballed," UNLV guard Danny Brotherson said. "You can't take anything away from Utah. Their defense was good and our shots just weren't falling." Möttölä had 15 points in the first half, hitting 4-of-6 from the field and 7-of-7 from the foul line. Meanwhile, Utah's defense started forcing turnovers and shut down UNLV's attack. The Rebels shot 25 percent (8-of-32) in the first half and any hope of a comeback was buried by Utah's 14-0 run early in the second half. "I loved that they were in sync tonight," Majerus said. "It was five guys moving in unison with the ball." Dalron Johnson's basket cut UNLV's deficit to 50-27 with 17:30 to play. But Cullen and Mottola made back-to-back 3-pointers and Tony Harvey had two baskets to stretch the lead to 64-27 with 12:38 remaining. | ALSO SEE Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
AUDIO/VIDEO   Hanno Mottola drives the lane for the hoop.avi: 507 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Jeremy Killion goes high off the glass for the bucket.avi: 539 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Chris Richardson is on the tail end of an alley-oop.avi: 430 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||