The University of Utah basketball team won a game on Thursday night.
That is a sentence that hadn’t been uttered since Dec. 21, which makes it all the more satisfying. The Utes caught fire midway through the first half and rode that the rest of the way to a 84-59 win over Oregon State at the Huntsman Center.
The win snaps a 10-game Utes losing streak dating back to a 55-50 decision over Fresno State.
After getting outplayed going into halftime, the Beavers trailed by just eight with 12:46 to play, but the Utes restored order, ripping off the next 10 points. Consecutive 3-pointers from Riley Battin capped the run, extending Utah to a 63-45 lead with 10:26, prompting an Oregon State timeout.
Utah hit a season-high 15 triples, five of them coming from freshman guard Lazar Stefanovic, who led six Utes in double figures with 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting. In his third game back following an appendectomy, 7-foot sophomore center Branden Carlson finished with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds as the Utes’ second-half lead eventually ballooned to 26 points.
“I think we showed who we are, who we can be today,” Stefanovic said. “We played one of our best games, competed for 40 minutes and never backed down. Congrats to all my teammates, they did an amazing job today.”
Utah (9-14, 2-11 Pac-12) had played well in recent losses as part of the 10-game losing streak, but it turned a corner Thursday night against an Oregon State team standing as one of the worst in the country in terms of field goal percentage defense and 3-point field goal percentage defense.
A back-and-forth start gave way to the Utes taking control with about 11:00 to play in the first half as the Utes shot 53.1% from the floor over the first 20:00, including a 9-for-17 mark from 3-point range.
