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SALT LAKE CITY — For nearly eight minutes Friday night, the Utah men's basketball team was perfect from the floor.
Utah jumped out to a 15-2 lead on 7-of-7 shooting to put some early distance on the visiting UC Riverside Highlanders. Utah then had no trouble pushing the lead higher while holding the Highlanders to 17% shooting from the field in the first half.
The Runnin' Utes, which lived up to its name, pushed the tempo and built up a 35-point lead before the break. Utah cooled off in the second half while UC Riverside found a rhythm, but the home team still rolled to a 82-53 win Friday night.
"Unbelievable first half, just thought we had everything going," Utah head coach Craig Smith said. "Really defended hard — made life very, very, very difficult for them. It was hard for them to get anything clean; we were just so connected on that end of the floor."
UC Riverside (1-1) came out of the locker room resolved and ready for a fight against a Utah team that lacked the same intensity of the first half. Though Utah had the advantage and was the better team for much of the night, the Highlanders put some pressure on the Utes in the second half.
The Highlanders quickly hit some shots and doubled up the team's first-half score with relative ease, include four 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes of the second half, to force the Utes to stay engaged in a game that was never really in doubt.
Utah (2-0) never got back to its first-half intensity on either side of the ball, but settled in to maintain a big lead it never relinquished. Even then, Utah kept more rotational players on the floor as he limited his starters' minutes in the second half.
Still, the Highlanders managed to outscore the Utes in the second half 40-34.
"We've gotta figure out a way to continue to play at the defensive level the second half as we did in the first half. ... It's always hard to want to come out and just play with that same energy to start the game," said Branden Carlson, who finished with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists, "but we just really have to focus in on that."
Utah had five players finish in double figures in the win, with center Lawson Lovering leading all scores with 18 points, seven rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes of action. Cole Bajema added 13 points, Ben Carlson finished with 11 points, and Keba Keita managed 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.
The Highlanders were led in scoring by Isaiah Moses, who finished with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting, and Ben Griscti added 10 points and seven rebounds.
