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SALT LAKE CITY — It didn't take long for Utah to get going Saturday afternoon.
Senior guard Both Gach scored 10 of Utah's first 12 points, including a transition dunk on a pass from Rollie Worster on a steal and back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Utes an early 12-6 lead over the visiting Manhattan Jaspers.
The hot start on offense, which included 13 assists on the team's 17 made baskets in the first half, allowed for Utah to build up a lead that they'd never lose. Utah controlled a 17-point lead at halftime on a game-high 11 points from Branden Carlson, and grew the lead in the second half to beat the visiting Jaspers 96-62 at the Huntsman Center.
"They're really, really good, and they just make it difficult on you," Utah head coach Craig Smith said of Manhattan. "You've got to be on point with a lot of different things."
Utah finished the day with 26 assists on 35 made baskets and outrebounded the Jaspers 40-27. Utah utilized 12 players in the game and had every player score at least one bucket.
"We had a very good look to us, really shared the ball and that's a big thing for this team," Smith said. "And to have 26 assists on 35 made shots — 26 assists alone is very impressive, but to do that on 35 mades — and I don't think it's an accident we scored 96 points. We really were on attack, a lot of good production."
Manhattan (6-3, 1-1 MAAC) used various press defenses in an attempt to limit Utah's ability to advance the ball, but the Utes handled the attack with ease and used a lot of passing to set up its offense to give the open player the best look possible. Utah (7-3, 1-1 Pac-12) shot a season-high 55% from the field in the first half and a perfect 9 of 9 from the free-throw line to add to afternoon game.
Utah finished the game shooting 58% from the field, missed only two free throws (16-of-18) and had four players score in double figures, including a team-high 16 points by Lahat Thioune, a career high for the backup center, and seven rebounds. Riley Battin added 14 points and seven rebounds, Carlson had 13 points and four rebounds and Gach finished with 12 points and six rebounds.
"Lahat was really, really good," Smith said. "I thought he played more minutes — I'm sure most people did. When I looked at his minutes, I was a little bit surprised that he only played about 13 minutes, but he certainly impacted the game in a major way.
"Lahat's gotten a lot better, and I think you can see it. He's impacted the game here in a lot of ways. He hadn't had a lot of playing time over the course of his career, so now he's just settling in. ... As a player, when you know you're gonna play, it's a lot easier to kind of prepare. He's getting a lot more reps in practice, but he's confident."
Defensively, the Utes locked in and held the Jaspers to only 33% shooting from the field and limited the team's leading scorer, Jose Perez, to 6 points on 1-of-7 shooting in the first half. Perez failed to check into the second half as Manhattan finished the game shooting just 33% from the field.
Utah utilized a different starting lineup against Manhattan, with David Jenkins Jr. out of the lineup and Gach, Worster and Marco Anthony in as the team's three guards. Earlier this week Utah head coach Craig Smith he would look to change up the lineups to see if he could get more production out of his team following a loss to TCU.
Jenkins checked into the game at the 12:56 mark in the first half and only played nine minutes in the win. The UNLV transfer scored 6 points on 2-of-3 shooting in his limited action. But Smith said there was "nothing specific" as to why the move happened but believed it could be a better look for the team and for Jenkins moving forward.
"Just felt like with our team it might be a better look — it's just a change," Smith said. "And quite frankly, I thought maybe it will help him just seeing things from a different lens, so to speak."
After three games over a seven-day period, Utah will get a week break before traveling to Missouri on Dec. 18 in the team's final road contest in nonconference play. Utah will close out out-of-conference play at home against Fresno State on Dec. 21 before the Christmas break.
