• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Jazz snap home skid, beat Kings in OT

Mar 6, 2011 - 7:03 AM Salt Lake City, UT (Sports Network) - Al Jefferson scored 27 points and had seven rebounds as the struggling Utah Jazz downed the Sacramento Kings, 109-102, in overtime to snap a seven-game losing streak at EnergySolutions Arena.

Andrei Kirilenko and Raja Bell each scored 16 points for the Jazz, who recorded just their second win in 10 games. Devin Harris had 14 points and dished out seven assists while Paul Millsap and C.J. Miles each notched 12 points.

"It feels good," Bell said of the win. "I think it was especially good for us to play another close one and figure out how to get over the hump late in the game. We made some mistakes down the stretch and let it slip again but we fought and we figured it out in overtime so I think that's good experience for us."

Marcus Thornton posted 22 points while DeMarcus Cousins and Francisco Garcia each had 18 points for the Kings, who have lost four of the last five games and 12 of 15 overall. Beno Udrih chipped in 16 points and six assists. Cousins also had 18 rebounds and seven assists.

Kirilenko's two free throws with 64 seconds left in regulation gave the Jazz a three-point lead, 93-90. Jefferson's tip-in pushed the edge back to three again after Udrih made a nice reverse layup.

That set up Thornton's wide open three-pointer to knot it at 95-all and send the game into overtime.

Garcia's trey opened the extra period's scoring, but Utah scored the next six points which was finished by Jefferson's spin move and lay-in to put the Jazz up 101-98 with 2:17 left.

Bell closed out the game for the Jazz hitting two jumpers with 1:36 to go and then with 17.6 ticks left to put them up 105-100. Bell iced the game with a steal, which set up Jefferson's dunk to effectively end the game with 8.3 seconds to go.

"In the overtime, we needed to execute the play," Kings head coach Paul Westphal said. "Even out of a time out, we didn't really execute it and we lacked getting a shot. Sometimes that can be a difference in a game that's that close. One play here, one play there."

The first quarter was very tight, and Miles' tip-in with 4.2 seconds remaining put the Jazz up 30-29 after 12 minutes.

Utah got some separation in the second with a 7-0 run finished by Bell's three-pointer with 3:46 remaining to put the Jazz in front, 51-41. The home team pushed it to a 10-point lead two more times the rest of the way and Derrick Favors' alley-oop layup from Harris provided a 57-49 margin at halftime.

Trailing by 10 in the third quarter, Sacramento ripped off eight straight points capped off by Thornton's two free throws for a 61-59 game with eight minutes left. Cousins then hit two free throws with 66 seconds left in the quarter to deadlock the teams at 72-72 heading into the final frame.

Game Notes

Sacramento remains without reigning Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans due to a case of plantar fasciitis in his left foot. The team is 3-11 in Evans' absence this season and went 2-8 without him a year ago...Utah has won eight of its last 10 over Sacramento, including all three meetings this season...Jazz center Kyrylo Fesenko left with back spasms in the second half and did not return.