The Utah men’s basketball team used its slow down, grind out, hot three point shooting formula to bounce back from its first conference loss to paste host San Diego State 70-53 Saturday afternoon at Cox Arena.
Jeff Johnsen tied a career high with 20 points on 5-9 threes, and Phil Cullen added 18 points (14 in the first half), as Utah improved to 17-4, 7-1 Mountain West Conference. SDSU fell to 13-10, 2-6 MWC.
Utah’s patient offensive pace resulted in 17 assists on 23 made field goals.
“That’s what our team’s about, that’s why we win games,” said forward Britton Johnsen, who finished with 11 points. “Everyone’s unselfish.”
Senior point guard Travis Spivey led the distribution, handing out 6 assists. Spivey also picked up 5 points and 12 rebounds.
In the first half, the Utes broke out of their shooting slump that led to their first conference loss against Wyoming Feb. 4. After shooting 27 percent against Wyoming, Utah built a comfortable halftime lead with deadly marksmanship.
After trailing 12-10 five and a half minutes into the first half, Utah went on a 23-5 run.
Utah built a 42-23 halftime lead, as forward Phil Cullen was a perfect 4-4 from three-point land. Utah shot 64 percent (7-11) from downtown, and 54 percent (13-24) from the field.
In the second half, the Utes had trouble preserving the lead. SDSU cut the margin to 12, but couldn’t get closer.
An exchange between the Johnsen brothers put a seal on the Utah win.
Senior Jeff hit a slashing Britton down the middle for a basket plus a foul. Brit hit the charity toss, and Utah led 61-46 with 3:58 left in the game.
“Jeff is very good at knowing when I’m going to cut. He gets on me sometimes when I don’t read him,” said Britton.
Cullen supplied the finishing touches with his fifth three of the game, an uncontested trey from the top of the key, and Utah cruised 70-53.
The U clamped down on the free looks to the SDSU scoring trio of Randy Holcomb, Al Faux and Tony Bland. The three ranked among the top four scorers in the MWC, but didn’t receive many free looks.
The trio shot 10-36 (27 percent) during the game. Holcomb, the MWC’s leading scorer and rebounder, scored 14 points on 5-18 from the field, and grabbed 5 rebounds. Al Faux added 12 and Tony Bland scored 10.
As a team, the Aztecs shot just better, making only 29 percent (17 58) of its shots.
SDSU was without head coach Steve Fisher, who flew to Illinois to aid his ailing mother. Assistant coach Brian Dutcher replaced Fisher.
Next up for the Utes is an ESPN Big Monday match-up at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center Feb. 11. After that, the Utes return home for games with Air Force (Feb. 16) and New Mexico (Feb. 18).