SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah men's basketball team snapped its four-game losing streak and returned to the win column Saturday evening with a dominant 83-62 win over Oklahoma State inside the Jon M. Huntsman Center to record its first victory ever as members of the Big 12 Conference.
Utah's (9-6, 1-3 Big 12) offense returned to form in the opening frame, shooting .467 (14-of-30) from the field – including a 7-for-7 effort from the free-throw line.
Ezra Ausar feasted early on, scoring 12 of the team's 21 points to force an Oklahoma State timeout at the 12:46 mark. The Runnin' Utes defense also came out firing on all cylinders, holding the Cowboys without a field-goal for 4:26 minutes.
Lawson Lovering,
Mike Sharavjamts and
Keanu Dawes had solid first halves with Lovering and Sharavjamts each scoring 7 points while Dawes had a quick 6 points off the bench to help Utah take the 37-26 edge into halftime.
The second-half was much of the same as Utah continued to dominate the paint against Oklahoma State (9-6, 1-3 Big 12) before finishing with a 46-24 edge in points in the paint.
Jake Wahlin, who made his first start since the Utah Tech game (11/22), had solid night scoring a career-high 16 points – all of which came in the second frame. The sophomore went a perfect 5-of-5 from the field – including three from deep – and was 3-for-3 from the charity stripe as well.
Ausar finished with a game-high 21 points for a new season-high with the Utes, going 7-for-12 from the floor and 7-of-8 at the line. Dawes also finished with a season-high 16 points and was just shy of a double-double with 9 rebounds on 8-of-10 shooting.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Utah is now 2-1 all-time against Oklahoma State when playing in SLC and 2-4 all-time against the Cowboys
- Utah made 11-straight free-throws before missing its first shot at the line with 9:06 left in the game before finishing 17-of-24 (.708)
- Lawson Lovering had a career-high 6 assists to lead the team while scoring 8 points with 3 rebounds
- Lovering became the sixth different Ute this season to dish out 5-plus assists in a game this season
- Redshirt freshman Jerry Huang recorded his first-career free-throw attempts and made his first three-throw :11 on the clock
- The 23 assists on Saturday marked the eighth time the Utes have dished out 20-plus assists this season
- The .708 shooting clip at the free-throw line was the third-highest in a single-game this season for Utah
UP NEXT
Utah will get an extra day of prep as it heads down to the heart of Texas for a midweek match-up against TCU next Wednesday, Jan. 15. Lowell Galindo will once again guide fans through the action on
ESPN+ alongside Brandon Johnson starting at 6 p.m. (MST) as the two former conference foes once again duke it out – this time as members of the Big 12 Conference.
For the latest news and information on the Runnin' Utes men's basketball program, fans can stay connected online at
www.UtahUtes.com and on social media by following @UtahMBB on
Facebook,
X and
Instagram. Fans can also stay connected on their mobile devices or tablets with the Utah 360, the official app of Utah Athletics, through the
Apple Store or
Google Play.
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