The University of Utah men’s basketball team grabbed a wire-to-wire win against the Washington Huskies on Saturday night. Utah dominated the game all evening behind another strong game from Branden Carlson, who put up 25 points and eight rebounds, including six offensive boards.

Utah got a real pop from their crowd tonight. A Saturday game at a good time drew a relatively large fan showing, and they brought the energy for the Utes from the tip. During a stretch in the first half, Gabe Madsen drilled back-to-back three-pointers in transition to put Utah up 32-13, and that was the loudest the Huntsman Center has been since the Utes beat Arizona back at the start of December.

Heading into halftime, Utah led 44-30. The first half was arguably the best the Utes have played all season. They moved the ball with pace and intensity and were able to put up 44 points on the Huskies. Remember, they scored just 49 for the game in their loss to UCLA last week.

“We went back to what we are,” Smith said. “We just did such a better job on execution.”

Keba Keita turned his ankle in the first half and left the game to get it checked out in the locker room. He didn’t return. Coach Smith wasn’t able to say what the diagnosis on the injury was, but it doesn’t appear to be season-threatening. He may miss a bit of time.

It’s probably safe to say that this was the best start-to-finish performance of the season for the Utes. Obviously, the upset of Arizona was a bigger game, but the Utes looked complete on both sides of the floor throughout the game tonight. They got things rocking from the opening tip, and played hard until the final buzzer. The offense hummed with everyone making the extra pass, and the jumpshots went in at a high rate. This is what the Utes can look like when everything is clicking, and it’s a pretty sight.

Utah fought through a bit of adversity in the second half when the Huskies started to come alive offensively. They threatened to come back into the game, but the Utes had an answer for every push that Washington gave, and pulled back in front by around 15 points, where the lead would stay for the rest of the half. They eventually won, 86-61. 

“Maybe the most complete weekend (all season),” Smith said. “We really played at a high level on both sides of the ball, and that’s what great teams do.”

Rollie Worster finished the game with 11 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds. Worster had a chance for his 10th board with under two minutes left in the game, but Marco Anthony snatched it up, and a timeout was called to get the starters out of the game. Worster finished one board shy of a triple-double. 

“Some of the guys were joking around with him,” said Worster on Anthony stealing his triple-double.

Up next, the Utes will face Oregon State and Oregon on the road next weekend. It’s a late tipoff against the Beavers on Thursday, starting at 9 p.m. MST.

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