Bealer Scores Career-High in Utah's 91-51 Win Over MVSU

Monday, November 13

Salt Lake City, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

2-0

Mississippi Valley State

0-2

Miss. Valley State

Utah

Bealer Scores Career-High in Utah's 91-51 Win Over MVSU

11/13/2017 10:52 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Utah-MVSU Box Score (PDF)

Bealer notches 20 points and seven rebounds

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah senior Gabe Bealer poured in a career-high 20 points and matched a career-high with seven rebounds to help lead the Utah Runnin' Utes (2-0) to a 91-51 victory over the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils (0-2) Monday night at the Huntsman Center.

For the second straight contest to open the season, Utah shot at least 50 percent from the field, which included shooting 44.8 percent on shots taken from downtown. Utah drained 13 three-pointers as a team and Bealer led the way with six three-pointers, which also marked a career-high for the senior.

Utah opened the contest with a 12-0 run and later capped off a 20-2 run with a three-pointer from Bealer. MVSU countered with a 14-4 run, but Utah again proceeded to go on another run, scoring the next 15 points and limiting the Delta Devils without a field goal for six minutes. MVSU hit a three-pointer at the 3:01 mark, but the Utes would take a comfortable 41-21 lead into halftime.

Bealer led all players at the break with 11 points, while Justin Bibbins and David Collette both chipped in with six points through the first period of play. Utah shot 45 percent from the floor, which included a 38 percent effort from downtown. The Utes were 10-of-11 (.910) from the free throw line in the first half. Meanwhile, MVSU shot 27 percent from the field, connecting on just 9-of-34 overall.

MVSU scored the first five points of the second half, but Bealer continued his hot streak and drained three consecutive three-pointers to push Utah's lead to 53-27. The Utes would go onto hit four more three-pointers down the stretch, while limiting MVSU to just a 20 percent effort from the arc in the second half. Utah lead by as many as 45 points with 1:27 left to play before closing out the game with the 40-point victory.

Utah is back in action this Thursday, Nov. 16, hosting SEC foe Missouri. Tip-off between the Runnin' Utes and Tigers is set for 6 p.m. and the contest will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks.

GAME NOTES
• Bealer set new career-highs in points (20), field goals made (7), three-point field goals made (6), while tying a career-high in rebounds (7).
• Bealer's six three-pointers are the most by a Utah player in a game since Jordan Loveridge made six three-pointers against Southern Utah back on Nov. 13, 2015.
• Freshman Donnie Tillman scored his first points of his career on Monday, finishing up with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and a 3-of-4 effort from the free throw line.
• Senior Tyler Rawson chipped in with 10 points, notching a double-digit scoring effort for the second straight game.
• Redshirt Freshman Chris Seeley scored eight points on the evening, while pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds.
• Utah's 44.8 percent shooting from three-point range marked the highest effort from downtown since converting 45 percent against Stanford (03/04/17) last season.
• Utah's 13 made three-pointers were the most since registering knocking down 13 from the arc at Colorado back on Feb. 7, 2015.
• The Utes shot 85.7 percent from the free throw line, converting 12-of-14 from the charity stripe.
• Utah is now 1-0 all-time against MVSU following the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

POSTGAME QUOTES
Utah vs. Mississippi Valley State | November 13, 2017
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
On the status of Sedrick Barfield …
Stomach virus, we've had it going through our team. Donnie dealt with it a little bit, we've had some other guys battle with it as well. He wasn't able to play, so I sent him home.

On getting a look at other guys with Barefield's absence…
We got out of the gate great, I think we made our first six shots. This was a little bit similar to the other night. The only thing that I'm disappointed with on the stat sheet is the sixteen turnovers, we got a little sloppy once again. That can't be our Achilles heel, we've got to be more secure with the ball. I like our squad when we get shots, you can do the math, we score a point roughly every possession, and when you get into some games that have a fine line and a smaller margin of error, that can't be a focal point with us. It was an improvement from the other night, but still we just get a little sloppy with our decisions and our passing, short of that we had ten guys play almost twenty minutes. We're in a stretch where we play six games in fourteen days, so it's going to be a lot like an NBA schedule, and it was a night to get some guys some minutes that haven't been playing a lot. We're going to need those guys in the mix and figure out what our rotation is, it was also an opportunity for the starters to get some rest as well.

On Bealer's performance tonight…
I thought it was great, he's been shooting the ball very well and playing with a lot of confidence. He also made some improvements on the defensive end. He's an easy guy to pull for, he's quiet but he's been grinding. He obviously has dealt with the break in his bone, in his foot, and that went as well as it possibly could have. His injury was something that he could have dealt with for an entire year, our doctors and our staff are as good as anybody in the nation when it comes to getting somebody back from an injury. That worked out really well, and we got Gabe back in the mix. There was a lot of question about whether he would be able to play this early in the season. So, to have a nice game in the second game is really important for us, I'm proud of him.

On Bealer being a zone-buster this season for the Utes…
I think that we have some guys that can shoot the ball. We haven't shot it particularly well, there were a bunch of threes that we were presented with in this game that didn't go in. But if you can shoot forty percent or so from the three-point line, you're going to be pretty dangerous. I think it's in blend, we've got some inside presence at times, and Gabe is a guy who can knock down shots from the outside. I think that we will get enough volume of threes, and as we move into this Missouri phase, we've got to have a focal point being on rebounding and taking care of the ball.
We only had seven turnovers in the second half, and that's not really our style. We've been practicing for six weeks, and we have a certain style, we don't use a lot of pressure and run around in passing lanes creating steals. I think that team was top twenty last year in steals and creating turnovers, so we kind of knew what we were in for. There were just a lot of mindless turnovers, the only way I could describe it, is that it just sucks the life out of you. We talked about it, they're a mature group, we made a few adjustments with their press and then came out and had a lot better of a second half.

RS-Freshman Forward Chris Seeley
On tonight's performance…
I think we played well. We had some trouble last game in some areas and I feel like over the two days where we had practice, we got ready and made sure we knew what we needed to do.

On his first dunk in the game…
I was (surprised). I knew I was going to dunk it but, someone came out of nowhere and I didn't know I was going to dunk on them.

On what the team wants to learn in these early games …
How far we can get with talent we have and the type of team we are.

On his role for the team so far …
They just want me to come in there, rebound, pay hard, defend and dunk the ball when I can at least.

Senior Guard/Forward Gabe Bealer
On his shooting tonight…
Last game I was struggling a little bit. This game, the rim was just really big and I was really comfortable out there. I made one and kept shooting.

On the difference between games where he struggles and this game …
It is definitely a mental thing especially with shots that aren't falling early on. I definitely got in my head last game. But this game they were falling early. It just kept going up from there.

On the moment he felt it was a good night…
Probably, when I shot the second three. The second three was pretty deep and when I knocked that one down, I was pretty confident that it was going to be one of those nights.