Utah gets its defining moment thus far in its first Big 12 season — a victory over blue blood Kansas

The first time the Kansas Jayhawks played at the Huntsman Center will always be remembered fondly by University of Utah fans.

That’s because the Runnin’ Utes knocked off the No. 17 Jayhawks 74-67 Saturday night, never trailing in a back-and-forth matchup that showed Utah has the capacity to battle against the big boys in the Big 12.

“It was the best game we played all year from start to finish,” Utah coach Craig Smith said, “and I just thought we just played really disciplined basketball.”

It’s the first Quad 1 win of the season for Utah after going 0-9 prior to Saturday night. That it came against a blue blood program was extra sweet, and it gives the Utes a signature win in their first season in the Big 12.

Utah (14-11, 6-8 Big 12) picked up its first win over a ranked opponent at home since it beat No. 14 BYU 73-69 last season, on Dec. 9, 2023.

The Utes really needed a win, as they were coming off two road losses wherein a lack of execution down the stretch cost them opportunities in winnable games at West Virginia and Cincinnati.

“It’s a great win. I’m just so happy for our players, just incredibly happy for our players and our staff,” Smith said. “It’s a heck of a team, obviously, it’s a blue blood, and they’re ranked in the top 20, and they’re good. They’re really, really talented.”

Utah, too, showed it can muster the mental fortitude to win big games in the Big 12. Now, the task is doing it on a more consistent basis.

Let the celebration and good vibes linger from this win, though — the victory gives Utah a 1-2 all-time record against Kansas in the only meeting thus far between the two schools in Utah.

There were times it looked like the Jayhawks (17-8, 8-6 Big 12) could steal this one away, even if the Utes never fell behind after getting off to a 13-5 start in the matchup.

Once in each half, Kansas held Utah scoreless for extended periods of time. Of course, that was countered by how the Utes started each half.

In addition to Utah’s 13-5 spurt in the game’s opening minutes, the Utes used a 10-3 burst in the second half to build a multiple-possession lead, and Utah extended that out to a 60-49 lead with 11:37 to play when Jayhawks coach Bill Self was hit with a technical and Gabe Madsen made both free throws.

“When you can get up early on a team like that, I think that also gives you a little more belief, gives you a little confidence and some mojo,” Smith said. “The first four minutes of each half were huge for us.”

Over the next seven minutes after Utah built that 11-point lead in the second half, though, Kansas methodically whittled away the Utes’ lead, using an 11-0 run to knot the score at 60-60.

Utah, which took care of the ball for much of the night, had three turnovers in that stretch and missed nine straight field goals.

Then, with 4:20 left and Utah desperately searching for answers, the Utes turned to something they found success on a consistent basis throughout the night against Kansas — offensive rebounding.

Ezra Ausar rebounded a Madsen miss, then got the putback to drop to give Utah a 62-60 lead.

While the Utes were outshot 40% to 36.5% from the floor on the night, they made up for it by owning a 16-6 edge in offensive rebounds. The Utes held a 14-9 advantage in second-chance points, none bigger than Ausar’s jumper.

That began a 7-0 run for Utah, capped by a history-making shot from Madsen.

With 1:58 to play, Madsen nailed a stepback 3 to make it 67-60 Utes. That 3-pointer was the 288th of his career, pushing him past Nick Jacobson to become Utah’s all-time leader in 3-point makes.

“It’s really rewarding. He’s such a great kid,” Smith said, of Madsen breaking the record. “All he cares about is winning. The guy has always been about the team. It’s all he cares about.”

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The heroics weren’t over for the Utes.

After Kansas trimmed the Utah lead to 67-62, Mike Sharavjamts attacked the rim and hit a layup with 54.2 seconds to play. The Jayhawks were able to cut it to five points once more, but the Utes sealed the win from the free-throw line.

“Learning to finish a game is a skill. It feels good,” said Utah sophomore Jake Wahlin, who had his first career double-double with 10 points, 12 rebounds and three assists.

Defense often reigned in this one, and for Utah, that meant holding Kansas All-American center Hunter Dickinson to 12 points on 4 of 12 shooting.

Lawson Lovering and Caleb Lohner often drew the assignment of defending Dickinson, and it made for an entertaining battle down low, a tough-sledding kind of night for the Jayhawks senior.

“I think we just have some versatile lineups, and we can make some switches when we need to,” Madsen said, “and, like I said, we had a good game plan coming in here, and I think we made some good changes throughout the game.”

The Utes also forced Kansas into 12 turnovers, while having only seven themselves. Utah turned that into a 22-7 edge in points off turnovers, a huge advantage for the home team.

Self pointed to turnovers and offensive rebounds as the determining factors in this matchup wherein his team was outrebounded 46-36 overall.

“They kicked our butt on the glass, and then our turnovers led to points for them, and that was the biggest difference in the outcome,” he said, “although there was a lot of other things we didn’t do well, but rebounding and taking care of the ball crushed us.”

There were several outstanding individual performances as well for Utah.

Madsen scored a game-high 24 points while making five 3-pointers. Four of those came in the first half as Utah brought the fight to Kansas from the jump.

Ausar added 12 points and eight rebounds, and Keanu Dawes had 10 rebounds off the bench.

There’s not much time to celebrate. On Monday, the Utes will host Kansas State, another formidable opponent that had been on a six-game win streak before losing at BYU Saturday night.

The emotion from the win over Kansas, though, is something to savor before turning the page to the Wildcats.

“I don’t know why, but I gave my mom a big hug after and (it’s) just the first I’ve gotten emotional about basketball a long time. It was just, it felt really good, particularly this one,” Wahlin said.

“I think it’s because we’ve had some tough breaks recently, and we believe each other. Even though it’s, you know, mid-February, there’s still a lot of basketball left, and I think we all are committed to finish this thing.”