3 takeaways from Utah’s 88-80 win over Eastern Washington

Utah stayed unbeaten at home so far this season on Saturday, beating Eastern Washington 88-80 at the Huntsman Center.

While it wasn’t as big a winning margin as expected going into the matchup — the Eagles have won just once this season — the Runnin’ Utes (6-1) were never in serious doubt of losing in the second half.

3 takeaways

There were a lot of free throws and fouls. Eastern Washington was whistled for 26 fouls in the matchup, while Utah picked up 18 fouls.

That led to countless trips to the free-throw line. The Utes ended up making 28 of 45 free throws, while Eastern Washington was more efficient, hitting 17 of 18.

That impacted the flow of the game in a matchup that lasted nearly two hours, 20 minutes.

Gabe Madsen, who scored a game-high 28 points, made 11 of 12 free throws while adding four assists and a steal.

It wasn’t the cleanest game for the Utes. Utah wasn’t as sharp on either end as it had shown consistently through the prior six games.

Eastern Washington made 45.6% of its shots, including 11 3-pointers after the Utes entered the game second nationally in field goal percentage defense at 33.8%.

Offensively, the Utes had 14 assists on 28 made field goals, well below their 22.5 assists-per-game average before the contest, which leads the country.

Utah also made just four 3-pointers after averaging a nation’s best 13.8 going into the night.

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Utah pulled away in the second half before weathering one last run. Even with numbers that weren’t reflective of how Utah had been playing prior to Saturday, the Utes never let Eastern Washington take control.

Eventually they got things going, and that was reflected in a 23-5 run that started five minutes into the second half. Utah went from trailing 48-47 to moving ahead by a game-high 17 points.

The Eagles later trimmed that deficit to four, but the Utes found ways to stay comfortably enough ahead and move to 6-0 at home.

What’s next

The Utes will have a week to prepare before hosting one of their top nonconference matchups, Saint Mary’s, on Dec. 7. The game will tip off at 5 p.m. MST. It will be streamed on ESPN+ and can be heard on 700 AM.

The Gaels are 7-1 on the year, with wins over Nebraska and USC. Arizona State handed Saint Mary’s its first loss earlier this week.