Utah needed a win in the worst way going into its Thursday night matchup with Stanford.
The Runnin’ Utes delivered — and then some — in a 90-68 victory over the Cardinal that avenged a close loss to Stanford last month in California.
“I thought we played very connected on both ends of the floor, had a great voice, trusted each other, made the extra pass on the offensive end,” Utah coach Craig Smith said.
“And it was everybody. You know, obviously we had some great individual performances, but that stuff happens when you play connected and you trust one another and make things difficult.”
With the final minutes of the game ticking down and the outcome no longer in doubt, the contest turned into another triple-double watch for Deivon Smith.
The point guard delivered his 11th point — to get him to a double-double — in the most emphatic way possible, driving aggressively to the lane and leaping with one foot over a defender before delivering a slam dunk with 5:03 to play that got the Huntsman Center crowd roaring.
“There was really so much space in that lane. I really didn’t expect him to jump honestly — I didn’t expect it but I finished through the contact,” Deivon Smith said. “I got a poster. Hopefully we can do something with that.”
He later added a steal and slam to force a timeout and put the Utes up 23.
At that point, Deivon Smith needed just one assist to hit the triple-double for the third time this season.
He got it with 2:20 to play with an assist to Ben Carlson on a 3-pointer, again bringing the red-clad crowd to its feet in appreciation.
Deivon Smith finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
“It’s a great feeling. It wouldn’t happen without my teammates knocking down shots of course and us playing connected, but it’s a great feeling,” Deivon Smith said. “I’m not really chasing. It just kind of happened naturally.”
One game after Colorado took control early in beating the Utes last Saturday, this time Utah scored the contest’s first seven points and built an early 13-point lead in a game the home team never trailed.
Stanford (12-16, 7-11 Pac-12), missing Spencer Jones with a wrist injury, had its own answers to keep within striking distance for a while.
The Utes (17-11, 8-9 Pac-12), though, squashed any Cardinal hope with a 19-2 run over a six-minute span that put Utah ahead 41-18 with three minutes until intermission.
Utah crashed the boards, outrebounding the Cardinal 40-29. The Utes held a 15-7 edge in offensive rebounds and owned a 20-9 advantage in second-chance points, including 12-2 in the first half.
Utah’s defense held Stanford to 39.3% shooting in the first half and 2 of 11 from 3-point range.
While the Cardinal got more going offensively in the second half, as they finished the game shooting 49.1%, Utah had built enough of a lead over the game’s opening 20 minutes to weather whatever Stanford threw at them.
Going into the contest, Craig Smith stressed the importance of defending from the arc, considering Stanford has had several games this year where it’s gone off from long range.
The Cardinal made 16 in an upset win over top-10 Arizona earlier this year, and three weeks ago, Stanford hit a season-high 19 in rolling past USC.
Utah, which allowed the Cardinal to make 10 in its loss to them earlier this year, kept Stanford bottled up through much of the night as it finished 4 of 15 from 3-point range.
“This is a team that, like I said, in their wins they average 12 made 3s a game and in their losses they average 8,” Craig Smith said.
“I thought that was gonna be a big stat for us and we did a good job of taking that away and making it tougher.”
That defensive effort helped open up Utah’s offense, as the Utes shot 49.2% from the field.
Utah made 12 of 28 3-pointers and was aggressive getting to the hoop, lending itself to a 14 of 22 effort from the free-throw line.
Also importantly, the Utes only turned the ball over nine times, not allowing Stanford many opportunities to capitalize on mistakes.
While the theme of the night was Utah’s togetherness, that chemistry naturally led to some standout individual performances beyond just Smith’s latest triple-double.
Cole Bajema caught fire in the first half, scoring 11 while hitting three 3-pointers. He ended the night with a career-high 21 points, made 5 of 6 3-pointers and added four rebounds and a blocked shot.
“First of all, I want to thank the fans out there, I thought they really brought it, too, but I mean credit to (Deivon), Gabe (Madsen), BC (Branden Carlson) and all of them. They were finding me open shots,” Bajema said.
“I think Deivon hit me on like two or three of the first 3s in the first half. Credit’s all to them, they’re just finding me, so it’s nice to get a win.”
Lawson Lovering, who was injured early in the team’s previous matchup with Stanford, provided solid minutes on both ends of the floor and had 17 points, five rebounds, one block and a steal.
“I thought Lawson was really good tonight in so many ways,” Craig Smith said. “I mean, he had 17 points, which is kind of a quiet 17 in a way, but his rim protection, his communication on pick and roll, his ability to understand spacing defensively, I thought was really good.”
Madsen also had 15 points, adding three 3-pointers as Utah led most every offensive statistic.
With the win, Utah moved into seventh in the Pac-12 standings and has three more games before heading to the league tournament in Las Vegas (March 13-16 at T-Mobile Arena).
The Utes moved a half-game ahead of Arizona State and within a half-game of California, Utah’s opponent on Saturday.
This was Utah’s first home game in almost three weeks, after going 1-2 on a road swing.
“It was great to be back home. It feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve been here. And (it’s) just a great team win,” Craig Smith said.