Utah’s final home game of the nonconference portion of its schedule went as expected, as the Runnin’ Utes rolled to a 89-59 victory over Florida A&M on Tuesday night at the Huntsman Center.
The Utes led by 19 at halftime and put away the visiting Rattlers early, giving them the chance to give their rotations and depth a good look ahead of Big 12 play, which starts for Utah with a game at Baylor on Dec. 31.
3 takeaways
Mike Sharavjamts provides a spark off the bench. For the first time all season, Sharavjamts wasn’t in the starting lineup — instead, he was replaced by Hunter Erickson, who had a career-high 18 points in last Saturday’s win over Radford.
Sharavjamts responded well to the chance to come off the bench, showing assertiveness in his offensive game. He finished with 15 points and four assists while making three 3-pointers.
Sharavjamts and Mason Madsen, who scored 15 points (all on 3-pointers), helped pace the Utes to a 57-30 edge in bench points.
The Utes took control early and never gave it up. Utah was up 18-3 eight minutes into the game before Florida A&M was finally able to make its second field goal of the night.
The Utes led by as many as 22 points in the first half and 35 in the game in easily dispatching the visiting Rattlers, who entered the night No. 304 in the NET rankings.
Utah ended up outshooting Florida A&M 54.8% to 37.7%, and the Utes made 11 3-pointers to nine for the Rattlers.
The Utes, the nation’s leader in assists, had 25 assists on 34 made buckets. Four players had four assists each.
Utah turned Florida A&M’s mistakes — and its size — into a sizable advantage. The Rattlers turned the ball over 18 times, and the Utes turned that into 27 points off turnovers.
By contrast, Utah had 10 turnovers on the night, which Florida A&M turned into 5 points.
Another area where the Utes had a “sizable” advantage was in the front court. Utah ended the night with a 44-20 advantage in points in the paint, led by 12 points from Ezra Ausar and Lawson Lovering with 10.
What’s next
The Utes (8-2) wrap up out-of-league play with a neutral-site game against Iowa on Saturday.
Utah and the Hawkeyes will play at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Tip time is 4 p.m. MST. The game will be televised on Big Ten Network and can be heard on 700 AM.
Iowa (8-3) is coming off a blowout win over New Orleans following back-to-back losses to Michigan and No. 3 Iowa State.