3 keys to Utah’s stunning 81-66 win over No. 4 Arizona

Second-year Utah basketball coach Craig Smith picked up his signature win to date on Thursday night as the Runnin’ Utes upset No. 4 Arizona 81-66 at the Huntsman Center in a Pac-12 men’s basketball opener.

The unranked Utes (1-0, 6-2) never trailed. They broke out to a 42-25 halftime lead and stayed the course after Arizona cut it to six several times early in the second half.

A 9-0 run gave Utah a 71-50 lead with 7:34 remaining, but the Wildcats had one more run in them. They got within 11, but the Utes kept their composure and won going away.

Here are 3 keys to Utah’s big win:

• The Utes did it with defense, holding the Wildcats to 4 of 28 shooting from 3-point range and forcing the preseason Pac-12 favorites into 12 turnovers. The Utes won the rebounding battle 51-42 and got a nice lift from their bench, which outscored Arizona’s bench 19-7.

Branden Carlson led Utah with 22 points and five rebounds, while Ben Carlson and Gabe Madsen added 11 apiece.

Arizona, which was the No. 1 scoring team in the country, averaging 97.5 points per game, was held to a season-low 66 points.

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• A 13-2 run in the first half pushed Utah out to a 17-point lead with four minutes left in the first half and the Utes made it stand up en route to the stunning upset of the previously undefeated Wildcats, who were seven-point favorites.

The Utes played the best half of basketball in the Craig Smith era in jumping out to a 42-25 halftime lead and bringing the Huntsman Center crowd to its feet several times in the first 20 minutes. Branden Carlson opened the onslaught with a 3-pointer and Ben Carlson, no relation, spurred it with a personal 5-0 run that included a resounding baseline dunk.

It was the largest halftime lead over an AP top-five opponent for the Utes since 1996-97.

• Arizona made just 2 of 13 3-point attempts in the first half (15%) and was 9 of 33 overall from the floor in the the first half. In addition, the Wildcats committed 11 turnovers in the first half and got only seven points from players not named Oumar Ballo or Azuolas Tubelis. Guards Pelle Larsson and Kriisa Kerr were held scoreless in the first half.

Ballo had 22 and Tubelis 20.

Arizona, which was No. 1 in the country effective field goal percentage (.647) and field goal percentage (.603), finished shooting 35% from the field (25 of 71).