Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Nevada [Exh] on October 17, 2025
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Men's Basketball
vs Nevada [Exh]
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Friday, November 16
Salt Lake City
7:00 PM MT
University of Utah
74
vs
55
St. Francis (Ill.)
Utes Down St. Francis, 74-55
11/16/2001 12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov 16, 2001
By TIM KORTE
AP Sports Writer
SALT LAKE CITY - It was business as usual with Rick Majerus back on the sideline, as Chris Burgess scored 20 points in Utah's 74-55 season-opening victory over St. Francis on Friday night.
Nick Jacobsen, last season's Mountain West freshman of the year, hit 4-of-5 on his 3-pointers and scored 16 points and the Runnin' Utes had little trouble with the NAIA-member Fighting Saints (2-4).
It didn't take long for the talent gap between the programs to appear. Utah built a 22-9 lead through the first 9 minutes and led 41-26 at halftime, though the Saints whittled the margin down with a few runs.
Nick Cardone scored 18 to lead St. Francis while Bob St. Leger had 16 and Mike Shannon 11.
Utah improved to 12-1 in openers under Majerus. Last season, he made it 11-1 with a victory over Idaho State, then left for six weeks to rehabilitate a slow-to-heal surgically repaired knee.
He ended up missing the rest of the season with other health problems and his mother's cancer. But Majerus looked like his old self for this year's opener, right down to the white sweater.
It was no surprise the Utes were bigger and more athletic than the Saints, whose tallest player was 6-foot-6. Utah's lineup includes two former high school All-Americans, Burgess and Britton Johnsen.
Majerus scheduled St. Francis, a school in Joliet, Ill., because coach Pat Sullivan is an old friend.
They met in the 1970s at Al McGuire's camp at Marquette. Sullivan is entering his 26th season as coach at St. Francis, where he's always run the same high-low motion offense that Majerus uses at Utah.
Most of the time, Majerus took his usual position standing on the sideline with his arms folded to survey the action. Assistant Dick Hunsaker, last season's acting coach, was back at his seat on the bench.
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