Branden Carlson won the opening tip, as he almost always does, got deep into the paint, took a pass from Gabe Madsen and made a short little jumper at the rim.
Right then and there, almost every spectator in the announced crowd of 6,599 at the Huntsman Center, the Runnin’ Utes themselves, had to know this wasn’t the same team that had lost three straight Pac-12 games to fall out of the league lead nearing the halfway mark of the conference season.
“Our team, we knew we had to get back to ourselves. These last three games we (lost), we knew we weren’t ourselves.” — Utah center Branden Carlson.
Carlson went on to score a career-high 28 points on near-perfect 11 of 12 shooting and collected eight rebounds as Utah got back to its winning ways with an impressive 77-63 win over a Washington State team that had won three straight and four of its last five.
“Our team, we knew we had to get back to ourselves,” Carlson said after becoming the first Ute since Britton Johnsen in 2002 to score 28 points while shooting better than 90% from the floor. “These last three games we (lost), we knew we weren’t ourselves.”
That’s to say the Utes (13-7, 6-3) stopped doing the things that got them off to a 5-0 start in league play and had them showing up in some NCAA Tournament bracket projections.
They shot 55% from the field, 41% from 3-point range (9 of 22) and looked like the squad that was No 4 in the country in both 3-point percentage defense and field-goal percentage defense. Washington State shot 34% and was just 6 of 23 from deep, which is usually one of its strengths.
Also, the Utes rebounded better — although coach Craig Smith can harp on the 15 offensive boards gathered by the visitors — and hustled more, energized by a home crowd eager to see them get back to their winning ways.
“We really worked a ton on execution on both sides,” Smith said of the days leading up to the Utes’ ninth Pac-12 game. “And we worked on rebounding and defending soundly, and getting back to our DNA, something we have been able to hang our hat on. And we did not do any of those things on the L.A. trip, or in the Oregon game, for that matter.”
The Utes made their first five shots and seven of their first nine. Rollie Worster added 14 points, seven assists and four rebounds, while Madsen had 12 points on 4 of 8 shooting from 3-point range.
Carlson’s only miss was a 3-pointer where a foul could have easily been called.
“We talked a lot (this week) about how we were playing before this new year started,” Carlson said. “We were playing together, we were sharing the ball. We were just kinda playing for each other. I thought we did that really well tonight and were able to succeed with that.”
Washington State played without TJ Bamba, out for the third-straight game with a hand injury. Bamba was WSU’s second-leading scorer in Utah’s 67-65 overtime win over the Cougars in Pullman, scoring 14 points.
Mouhamed Gueye had 20 points matching his output in Pullman, with 13 of those coming in the second half when Wazzu made a rally to get within five. Gueye’s bucket with 9:27 left cut Utah’s lead to 53-48.
But after a timeout, Madsen hit a 3-pointer, and Anthony followed with a bucket and a foul to right the Utes, and the Cougars were barely heard from again.
“They cut it to (five), we called timeout, ran a play for Gabe, and he sticks that 3,” Smith said. “We get a stop, then Marco gets and and-one and we kinda separated from there. So it was a good dub for the Utes.”
A win this team absolutely had to have if it wants to get one of those coveted top four spots to get a bye in the first round of the conference tournament.
“At the end of the day, we took care of business,” Smith said. “We shot 55%. It has been a little while. To have that kind of production on offense (was big).”
Carlson, who had 21 points in the first 22 minutes last Saturday in the loss at USC then didn’t score the remainder of the game, was and obviously is always going to be the catalyst for this team. When he’s going like he was Thursday, the Utes — with a NET ranking of 66 — are going to be tough to beat, especially at home.
“It was one of those nights for me,” said Carlson, whose previous career-high was 27 against Oregon State two weeks ago. “When you are making (shots) and all that, it is just a lot of fun being out there with your team at that point. They are celebrating you, you are celebrating them. Just the energy that these guys give me each night is awesome.”
Utah outscored Washington State 42-22 in the paint and got 14 points from its bench; Senior guard Bostyn Holt missed the game with a non-COVID illness and reserve Eli Ballstaedt is still in recovering from a concussion suffered in the loss at BYU.
The Utes had 20 assists and just eight turnovers, another sign that the execution level is back to where Smith wants it to be.
“That is huge,” Smith said. “That is how we have to play. We gotta play through the pads and make simple plays on that side of the court.”
Smith played center Keba Keita 10 minutes, and although the freshman didn’t score, he enabled Carlson to step outside and pop some 3s. Carlson was 3 of 4 from deep.
“It is just two powerhouses out there,” Carlson said of the pairing. “Keba is great, he is like Bane from the (movie) The Dark Knight Rises, and I am like Batman. And so it is great. Coach talked to us beforehand about how he wants to play us more together. I thought we did good together when we were in there at the same time.”
The Utes return to the Huntsman Center on Saturday (6 p.m. MST) to host Washington on Alumni Night. The Huskies upset Colorado 75-72 in Boulder Thursday night.