After the suspense of their one-point win over Utah State on Wednesday, the Runnin’ Utes put the Southern University Jaguars away early and cruised to an 88-48 victory Saturday night at the Huntsman Center.
The Utes’ offense took a few minutes to warm up, but a Shawn Glover 3-pointer at the 15-minute mark started a 10-0 run that put the Utes up 15-5, and with some solid play on the defensive end, the team didn’t look back.
The Jaguars missed their first 12 shots and were without a field goal for more than eight minutes until guard Jameel Grace made a layup with 11 minutes 14 seconds remaining in the half.
Head coach Jim Boylen said his team is still working to be more dominant defensively, and there were some moments in the game where he saw results from those efforts.
The Utes’ offensive attack eventually began to roll behind a balanced effort, and by halftime, five players had scored five or more points, and 11 players had seen action.
Although he expressed concern about his team’s rebounding in the first few games, Boylen said he saw a renewed effort tonight as the Utes, led by center David Foster, outrebounded Southern 53-27.
“We knew coming in that Southern struggled on defensive rebounds, and we took advantage of that,” Foster said.
The Jaguars, however, couldn’t seem to find anything going on offense and only managed to make four field goals in the first half.
Southern’s 4-of-30 shooting (13.3 percent) is the second-lowest percentage the Utah defense had held a team to in its history. At halftime, the Jaguars trailed by 35 points, and Boylen said the lopsided score presented a challenge in balancing sportsmanship and the need to get his young team experience.
“In some ways, it’s a tough game to manage because with the score, you want to be respectful to (the Jaguars), but your team has to get better and grow,” Boylen said.
The Utes’ starting five saw limited action in the second half, and senior Kim Tillie was rested for the entire time. Of the five, only Carlon Brown played more than 20 minutes, with 22, but still made an impressive showing, scoring 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting and pulling down seven rebounds. Freshman Marshall Henderson led all Ute scorers with 13 points in 18 minutes.
The Utah bench made a big contribution for the game and in the second half in particular, as Boylen went deep and played everyone healthy on the active roster. Jason Washburn scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting, Glover and Matt Read went for nine points each, and Jordan Cyphers led all bench players with 12 points.
“I’ve been waiting for Cyphers to bust out,” Boylen said. “He was shooting well in practice this week, so I’ve been waiting for it and tonight he did.”
Boylen said that a challenge for the team is to keep its competitive edge even while winning. The Utes will have several good tests as the tournament continues, as they face Seattle University on Tuesday and the Illinois Fighting Illini on Friday.
“Young teams need to learn how to play with grit even in success, so we’ll see how we practice tomorrow,” Boylen said. “This team needs to get better every second of the day.”
Mike Mangum/The Daily Utah ChronicleCarlon Brown scored 10 points in the Utes? 40-point win Saturday. The offense took time to get going, but once it did, the Utes never looked back, beating Southern University 88-48.