Gabe Madsen scored 15 points and Branden Carlson had 14 to lift Utah to a 95-66 home win over St. Thomas (Minn.) on Saturday night in Salt Lake City.
Madsen hit a jumper 16 seconds into the contest, and the Utes (5-2) never lost the lead after that to pick up a victory in their final nonconference tune-up ahead of Pac-12 play.
The Utes outshot the Tommies 59 percent to 41.1 percent, including hitting 10 of 16 from 3-point range. Utah also scored 21 points off St. Thomas’s 13 turnovers and held a 44-28 scoring advantage in the paint in the dominating performance.
Will Engels scored 16, Andrew Rohde had 14 and Ben Nau 13 for the Tommies (5-3), who saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.
This was the first meeting between the two programs.
The Tommies were within one point several minutes in after a Rohde 3-pointer when Madsen sparked a Ute surge with a pair of free throws.
By the time St. Thomas scored again four minutes and 20 seconds later, Utah had reeled off 10 straight points for an 18-7 lead.
Utah took its biggest lead in the first half of 14, 30-16, on a Marco Anthony 3 with five minutes to go.
St. Thomas cut the deficit to eight with a pair of triples, but the Utes took a 12-point halftime lead late in the half.
Carlson made it 36-24 by first blocking a shot and then taking the inbound pass from Rollie Worster for an alley-oop layup.
Worster finished with 10 points and seven assists, while Anthony totaled 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. Carlson grabbed the most rebounds for Utah, with seven.
The Utes stepped on the gas in the second half, scoring the first five points to go up 41-24 and then not allowing the Tommies to get any closer than 15. Utah eventually went ahead by 32 points.
–Field Level Media