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Men's Basketball
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Friday, December 21
Salt Lake City, Utah
7:00 PM
University of Utah
vs
Northern Arizona
Utes Set to Host Northern Arizona on Friday
12/18/2018 1:40 PM | Men's Basketball
Utes and Lumberjacks will meet for the first time since 1994
| GAME 11: Utah (5-5) vs. Northern Arizona (2-6) |
| WHERE: Salt Lake City, Utah (Jon M. Huntsman Center) |
| WHEN: Friday, Dec. 21, 2018 |
| TIP-OFF: 7 p.m. MT |
| TELEVISION: Pac-12 Networks / Pac-12 LIVE (Guy Haberman and Eddie House) |
| RADIO: ESPN700 / Utah Radio Sports Network (Bill Riley and Jimmy Soto |
| LIVE STATS: SideArm Stats |
FAST BREAKS
• Utah is in the midst of a three-game home stand and will next play Northern Arizona this coming Friday, Dec. 21, at the Huntsman Center.
• Utah will wrap up its non-conference slate with a home contest against No. 6/6-ranked Nevada next Saturday, Dec. 29.
• Utah and Northern Arizona will meet for just the second time overall and it will mark the first contest since the inaugural meeting that came back in 1994.
• Utah won the initial meeting between the two teams, taking down the Lumberjacks, 85-52, at the Huntsman Center back on Dec. 30, 1994.
• Utah is coming off a 93-64 home-win against Florida A&M on Monday, while NAU dropped its last contest, 79-74, to San Jose State. The Lumberjacks will face San Francisco on the road this Wednesday, Dec. 19, prior to its meeting with the Runnin' Utes on Friday.
THE GAME
Utah (5-5) will continue its three-game home stand with a late week match-up against Northern Arizona (2-6) this Friday, Dec. 21, in Salt Lake City. Tip-off between the Runnin' Utes and Lumberjacks is set for 7 p.m. MT.
COVERING THE RUNNIN' UTES
Friday's contest will air on the Utah Athletics Radio Network (ESPN 700 AM) with Bill Riley and Jimmy Soto announcing. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks with Guy Haberman calling the action and Eddie House providing color commentary.
SCOUTING NORTHERN ARIZONA
The Lumberjacks are 2-6 overall heading into its match-up with San Francisco on Wednesday. At the time of release, Northern Arizona had dropped five straight, which includes coming off a 79-74 road-loss to San Jose State this past Saturday. NAU's wins came at home against Jacksonville (11/10) and on the road at Omaha (11/14).
The Lumberjacks have four players averaging double-digit scoring efforts on the season and are led by Carlos Hines' 14.1 points per game. He is followed by Bernie Andre (13.5 ppg), Ted McCree (10.8) and Davon Bolton (10.6). Bolton averages double-figures despite starting just two of NAU's eight games this season.
Shelton Cameron leads the team with 24 assists on the season, but Bolton follows with 22 dimes. Shelton and Hines are both tied for the team lead with 14 steals each, while Andre has a team-high 5.8 rebounds per game. Brooks Debisschop is second on the team with 5.3 boards, but leads the squad with eight blocked shots.
Andre leads the team from the field as he heads into the week shooting .526 on the season. Hines has drained a team-high 19 three-pointers on the year, but Luke Avdalovic has a team-high .522 shooting percentage from beyond the arc. McCree is NAU's best free throw shooter with a .857 shooting percentage from the charity stripe.
NAU ranks among the top-30 teams in the nation, coming in at No. 25, giving up just 109 turnovers on the year. They also rank among the top-30 squads having committed just 152 personal fouls on the year.
UTAH VS. NORTHERN ARIZONA HISTORY
Friday will mark just the second time that Utah and Northern Arizona have met and the first meeting since Dec. 30, 1994. Utah won the initial meeting, downing the Lumberjacks 85-52 in Salt Lake City.
Utah is 156-61 all-time when facing teams from the Big Sky Conference, which includes a 5-0 mark since the 2014-15 season. Utah has won seven straight over Big Sky opponents with its last loss coming back in 2012-13 (Sacramento State).
LAST TIME OUT
Utah got back into the win column with a 93-64 home-win over Florida A&M on Monday. The Utes moved to 4-0 at home on the season and pushed its home winning streak to seven straight dating back to last season. Utah has won 13 straight at home over non-conference opponents dating back to the 2016-17 campaign.
Senior Parker Van Dyke led the Utes with his career-high 20-point effort. The Salt Lake City native also notched career-highs with seven field goals overall and six three-pointers made in a game. A total of five Utes scored in double-figures with freshman Timmy Allen notching a season-high 16 points, senior Sedrick Barefield scoring 16 points, junior Jayce Johnson pouring in a season-high tying 12 points and freshman Riley Battin chipping in with 12 points.
Utah set a new season-high shooting .588 (30-51) from the field and draining 22 of its 29 free throw attempts. It marked the highest shooting percentage for a Utah team since converting .600 (39-65) on the road against Washington back on Jan. 21, 2017. The Utes' .440 (11-25) percentage from downtown ranks second-best for the team this season.
Utah out-rebounded the Rattlers, 38-17, for a rebounding margin of +21 – the team's highest rebounding margin of the season and largest margin since pulling down 29 more rebounds than Mississippi Valley State last season (11/13/17).
STARTING LINE-UP, SHAKE-UP
Utah registered a new starting line-up for the sixth time this season and all it did was result in the Utes' having four of the five starters scoring in double-digits and a total of five Utes scoring double-digits for the second time this season. The starting line-up that consisted of freshmen Both Gach, Timmy Allen, Riley Battin, along with junior Jayce Johnson and senior Parker Van Dyke added up to starters scoring 62 of Utah's 93-point total on the evening.
Van Dyke became the third Utah starter to register at least 20 points in a game, following Barefield's 26 points against Grand Canyon and Gach's 22-point effort against Kentucky this past Saturday.
FIVE UTES NOTCH DOUBLE DIGITS, AGAIN
With five players scoring in double-digits against Florida A&M on Monday, it marked the second time this season Utah has done so. Five different Utah players also registered double-digit scoring efforts in the win over Mississippi Valley State. Parker Van Dyke led the way with 16 points - all off the bench - while Timmy Allen added a season-high 13 points. Charles Jones, who made his first start as a Ute, collected 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting (all three-pointers), as did Donnie Tillman and Riley Battin.
VAN DYKE HAS CAREER NIGHT AGAINST FAMU
Senior Parker Van Dyke set new career-highs in points (20), field goals made (7) and three-pointers made (6) in Utah's win against Florida A&M on Monday. Van Dyke scored 20 points for the first time in his career and surpassed his previous career-high of 18 points, which he tallied against UCLA back on Feb. 22 last season. He had originally drained six field goals in a game five different times in his career, with the last time coming against Mississippi Valley State earlier this season. His previous high for three-pointers made was four, which came on three different occasions and most notably also coming against MVSU.
BAREFIELD PERFECT FROM DOWNTOWN
Senior Sedrick Barefield scored 16 points in Utah's win over Florida A&M on Monday, going 4-for-5 from the field overall and a perfect 4-for-4 from beyond the three-point arc. This marks the second time that Barefield has been perfect from downtown in his career at Utah, matching his 4-for-4 effort against Arizona State last season on Jan. 25, 2018.
Barefield is just one of four Utah players since the 2009-10 season to go at least 4-for-4 from beyond the arc in a single game, and is the only Ute to do so twice in that span. The other players that went at least 4-for-4 from downtown since 2009 are: Brandon Taylor (4-4; 2012-13), Delon Wright (4-4; 2014-15) and Justin Bibbins (4-4; 2017-18).
CLEANING THE GLASS
After losing the rebounding margin in three straight games against Northwestern, Tulsa and BYU, Utah has battled back to win the battle of the boards in two straight games, which included registering eight more rebounds than Kentucky this past Saturday, when the Wildcats headed into the game leading the nation with a +15.2 rebounding margin. The Utes are coming off a +21 rebounding margin against FAMU, having pulled down 38 boards to FAMU's total of 17. The 17 rebounds given up is a new season-low for an opponent this season. Utah headed into the week ranked tied for 141st in rebounding margin with just +2.6 boards, but have moved into the top-100 and now rank No. 92 with a +4.4 margin.
UTAH AT HOME IN DECEMBER
Utah has now played two of four scheduled home games in the month of December at the Huntsman Center, following its win over FAMU on Monday. Utah's remaining home slate for the month now includes games against Northern Arizona this Friday, along with its scheduled contest against Nevada on Dec. 29. Since joining the Pac-12, Utah is now 25-4 overall at home through the month of December, which includes having won 21 straight overall and 23 of the past 25 games. The last time a Utah team dropped a home game in the month of December came back on Dec. 21, 2012, in a 76-71 defeat to Cal State Northridge.
Since the 2013-14 season, Utah is a perfect 20-0 in games played during the month of December at the Huntsman Center.
UP NEXT
Utah will break for Christmas and will return to action next week, hosting No. 6-ranked Nevada on Saturday, Dec. 29. Tip-off between the Utes and Wolf Pack is set for 12 p.m. MT and the contest will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks.
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