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Men's Basketball
at Washington
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The University of Utah Athletics
Monday, February 21
Salt Lake City
10:00 PM MT
University of Utah
96
vs
52
UNLV
Utah Rips Rebels, 96-52
2/21/2000 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2000
By TIM KORTE
AP Sports Writer
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Hanno Mottola is back in Utah's lineup, and the Runnin' Utes are once again on target to win the Mountain West's regular season title.
Mottola, 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 No. 25 Utah beat UNLV 96-52 on Monday night.
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.
Phil Cullen added 19 points and Alex Jensen scored 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.
Mottola had missed Utah's previous three games because of injuries suffered during a victory at Air Force on Jan. 29. At one point, surgery was considered but that was ruled out.
Mottola 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 Mottola, 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 Mottola made his first field goal on a feed from Jeff Johnsen for a 20-9 lead. And from there, Mottola 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 Mottola hit two free throws with 4:55 before halftime, Utah's lead grew to 40-18.
Mottola 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 the UNLV attack. The Rebels shot 25 percent (8-of-32) in the first half and any hope of a comeback was buried by a 14-0 Utah run early in the second half.
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.
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