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 The Utes attacked the rim, found a rhythm on the perimeter,
forced turnovers in bunches, blocked one shot after another and did
everything else possible to make life miserable for the Sun Devils.
By the time it was over, Utah ran away from Arizona State for a
83-41 victory.
Behind a ferocious first half defense, the Utes flat out crushed the
Sun Devils before halftime. Utah allowed just four total baskets in
staking out a 41-9 halftime lead. The Utes limited Arizona State to
15.4 percent shooting.
Utah (22-5, 12-3 Pac-12) blocked 10 shots and forced 10 turnovers.
The Utes scored 17 points off turnovers and had an 18-6 advantage in
points in the paint before halftime.
"People can get (nine points) in two minutes or something," Utah
guard Delon Wright said. "It took them a whole half to get nine.
That was good for our defense."
Wright scored 12 points to spearhead a balanced scoring attack for
the Utes. He also added five rebounds, four assists, three steals
and three blocked shots. Center Jakob Poeltl had a team-high six
blocked shots to go with eight points and six rebounds. Guard
Kenneth Ogbe added 11 points off the bench for the Utes.
 Eight Utah players finished with eight or more points. The Utes shot
63.3 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from 3-point range to
extend its home winning streak to 18 games.
"You can talk about fixing things when they're broke, but to lose a
game like we did at Oregon really got some guys attention," Utah
coach Larry Krystkowiak said. "We had a terrific couple of days of
practice. To have eight guys score eight or more points tonight was
just what we needed. It was a group effort."
Guard Gerry Blakes and forward Willie Atwood each scored 12 points
to lead Arizona State (15-13, 7-8), which suffered its most lopsided
loss of the season.
The Sun Devils shot just 28 percent from the floor and 18.8 percent
from the perimeter. Arizona State had as many turnovers (14) as
field goals and seemed outmatched in every phase of the game.
"There's not a whole lot to say," Sun Devils coach Herb Sendek said.
"Utah was just tremendous in every facet of the game. There's not a
whole lot of value in trying to dissect it any more than that at
this point."
Utah put the hammer down on defense from the opening tip. Arizona
State missed nine of its first 10 shots from the field, opening the
door for the Utes to sprint out to a big lead.
Forward Jordan Loveridge converted a four-point play and forward
Chris Reyes had two baskets to help Utah score the first eight
points.
The Utes took their first double-digit lead at 12-2 on back-to-back
highlight reel plays by Wright. The senior hauled in a baseball pass
and flipped it to guard Dakarai Tucker for a layup. Then, moments
later, Wright stole the ball from Arizona State forward Savon
Goodman and took it in for a breakaway dunk.
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On the other end, Poeltl had three blocked shots in the first three
minutes to set the tone for a half where Utah finished with 10
blocks
"That was crazy," Wright said. "I feel like every shot that was
going up was getting blocked."
Arizona State cut the deficit to 15-7 on consecutive layups from
Goodman with 9:51 left. Then the Sun Devils got cooked on both ends
of the court.
Utah outscored Arizona State 26-2 during the remainder of the half.
The Utes blocked 10 shots and forced 10 turnovers before halftime.
Both numbers were higher than the points scored by the Sun Devils.
Utah made nine of its final 11 shots from the field in the first
half. It started with a 3-pointer from guard Brandon Taylor that
made it 20-7 and ended with another 3-pointer from forward Brekkott
Chapman with 31 seconds remaining before halftime.
Nothing really changed in the script for Utah after halftime. The
Utes continued to dominate Arizona State in every sense of the word.
Utah made nine straight baskets at one point, pushing its lead to
70-24 on a 3-pointer from guard Isaiah Wright -- the last in that
sequence -- with 6:14 remaining in the game.
"We would've needed about 50 timeouts tonight," Sendek. "We could've
called a timeout after every possession. That might have been the
only way (to slow Utah down)."
NOTES: Arizona State scored its fewest first-half points since it
had eight against Washington State on Feb. 8, 2012. Utah matched its
season high for blocked shots in the first half with 10. The Utes
had 10 blocks previously against San Diego State on Nov. 18. ... G
Delon Wright is on pace to become just the second Utah player to
amass 1,000 career points, 375 rebounds, 350 assists, 150 steals and
70 blocks.
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