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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Jeff Johnsen's unlikely "butter" shot toasted Saint Louis.
Johnsen's off-balance 3-pointer -- barely beating the shot clock
-- with 1:43 left carried Utah to a 48-45 victory over Saint Louis
on Thursday night in the Midwest Regional.
"I saw the shot clock at the very last second," Johnsen said.
"We yell 'Butter!' when it goes inside 10 seconds. I heard
'Butter!' and I just let it fly. And I was lucky."
|  | | St. Louis' John Redden passes out of the double team by Utah's Hanno Möttölä, left, and Tony Harvey. |
Johnsen's shot from his hip gave the Utes (23-8) their first
lead since early in the second half.
"We were very fortunate that Jeff Johnsen threw the ball in
like that," said Utah coach Rick Majerus, who improved to 8-0 in
first-round games with the Utes. "It's amazing. You get good looks
and then something like that goes down."
After Johnsen's shot put the Utes ahead 46-44, John Redden hit a
foul shot for Saint Louis (19-14). The Billikens were just 9-of-22
at the line.
Phil Cullen, who led Utah with 12 points, added a free throw
with 11.5 seconds remaining before teammate Alex Jensen added
another with 9.6 seconds remaining.
Saint Louis hurried the ball downcourt, with Redden whipping a
pass to a wide-open Dave Fergerson whose 3-pointer with a second
left bounded off the back of the rim as the final horn sounded.
"I couldn't be more proud of the effort we gave tonight,"
Majerus said. "We had guys out of position. I think the guys all
came together."
Utah lost starting point guard Jeremy Killion for the rest of
the tournament when he went down with a torn knee ligament just 15
seconds into the second half.
It was the latest in a long line of injuries for the Utes.
"Unfortunately, we're kind of used to it by now," said forward
Hanno Möttölä, who scored 11 points. "It's frustrating, but we
have to try and play for him."
The eighth-seeded Utes will face top-seeded Michigan State,
which routed Valparaiso 65-38, in Saturday's second round.
Maurice Jeffers led the Billikens with 10 points.
"We knew Utah was going to come out and play good defense on
us. We gave good defense to them, too," said Saint Louis coach
Lorenzo Romar. "But we missed 13 out of 22 free throws and that's
certainly not going to help."
Utah hit just 9 of 19 free throws.
There were seven ties and neither team led by more than five
points in a game marked by physical play, chest-to-chest defense
and poor shooting.
Utah hit just 39 percent of its shots from the field to the
Billikens' 38 percent. The Utes were 9-for-21 from 3-point range,
but just 6-for-18 on 2-point shots.
Saint Louis, surprise champions of the Conference USA
tournament, led most of the second half and was up 43-40 after
Jeffers' dunk with 2:59 remaining.
Cullen, averaging just 5.3 points, countered with a 3-pointer to
tie it. Redden then hit the back half of a two-shot foul with 2:19
left for a 44-43 Saint Louis lead.
Utah had difficulty getting inside against the Billikens' sticky
man-to-man defense and Johnsen ended up with the ball deep on the
left wing as the final second ticked off the shot clock. With a
defender in his face, he let fly with the shot by almost heaving it
at the basket.
It provided his only three points of the game.
Johnsen was the target of razzing in the locker room by his teammates, but it didn't seem to bother him.
"Hey, they've seen me make that in practice many times," he said.
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Utah NCAA Team Report
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