Utah gave itself the perfect gift going into the Christmas break — a blowout win.
The Runnin’ Utes lived up to their moniker by rolling past two-win Eastern Washington 101-77 at the Huntsman Center on Saturday night in Utah’s largest margin of victory this season.
The Utes had big nights up and down the roster — led by Keanu Dawes, Terrence Brown and Don McHenry — in the team’s final nonconference home game.
“I think it was the best game for the 40 minutes where we kind of controlled it and stayed in control and followed the game plan,” Utah coach Alex Jensen said.
How the game transpired
The contest got off to a slow, sloppy start, as Eastern Washington held an 8-6 lead four minutes in before Utah’s first mini spurt — a 7-0 run — got the home team in front.
Things stayed relatively back and forth over the next nine minutes before Utah used a 16-4 run to go up 40-27.
That set the tone for the Utes, who outscored the Eagles 26-11 over the final 7:53 of the first half to take a dominant 50-34 lead into the break.
Utah shot 74.1% from the floor and 6 of 10 from 3 in the first half, the second hottest-shooting first half from a Big 12 team this season behind only a 75.9% effort from Iowa State against Alcorn State.
The second half was a lot of back-and-forth from both sides, with the Utes going up by as many as 20 points early in the half while Eastern Washington did enough to keep the game from turning into a blowout.
That is until around the nine-minute mark, when Utah went on a 12-3 run over the next three minutes to move ahead a then game-high 21 points.
The Utes then pulled away in the game’s final minutes for their largest margin of victory this season.
This was a team win
There were a lot of solid individual performances across the board for Utah on a night when it best executed Jensen’s mantra of “playing with the pass.”
“I think that’s been the lost art in the last little while. I think fewer and fewer players get to this level and they know how to play without the basketball,” Jensen said. “That’s the one thing that I can teach them, how to create opportunities off the basketball, because they all grew up only knowing how to score with the ball.
“I keep hitting them on play with the pass, change sides of the floor and score together, which I think they did a good job. How do I fit in to the four other guys in the court, and what are my opportunities and my role? And then it’ll happen.”
The Utes had a season-high 23 assists in the victory and owned a 22-2 edge in fast break points as they played with the most confidence and poise they’ve shown all year.
Dawes embodied that mindset, as he shot a perfect 9 of 9 from the floor, scoring a season-high 21 points while adding a team-high nine rebounds and two assists.
“I just think we were able to follow the game plan, and then...we just played with the pass,” Dawes said. “We had 23 assists to their, was it 13 assists? I think it just started from how we came out the gym ready to play, and just getting everybody involved early on in the game.”
Jensen, who’s been pushing Dawes to be more assertive, said the talented junior “made a jump tonight.”
“I think he was aggressive, and our guards helped with that. ... We told them all week we were going to see a lot of press, to be aggressive, and KD (was) catching it, taking it all the way. I think that was encouraging,” Jensen said.
Brown, meanwhile, showcased his ability to see the floor. In addition to scoring 20 points, he had a season-high 11 assists as Utah shot a blistering 68.4% from the floor.
“Coach emphasizes a lot going into games (that) a lot of teams are going to be crowding the paint, doing things like that,” Brown said. “So (for me, it’s) just emphasizing me finding an open man and playing with the pass, which I was doing pretty well today.”
McHenry, the other half of the Utes’ dynamic scoring guard duo, was the hottest shooter for Utah, scoring a game-high 27 points while shooting 10 of 13 from the field and making a season-high six 3-pointers. He also had three assists.
“You know, he’s another guy, pretty much every guy I want a little bit more from, but I tell him all the time he’s one of the few seniors on the team, and he’s got to be, you know, one vocal but I think Don, he’s playing off the ball more than he has in the past, and then he does a great job of letting the game come to him and picking his spots and being patient,” Jensen said.
“He and (Brown) have really done a good job with that and and they’ve done a better job playing off each other.”
Two other Utes scored in double-figures. Freshman Kendyl Sanders continued to show why he’s earning minutes by posting 13 points, a rebound and an assist against three turnovers, while Seydou Traore helped spark Utah’s offense early and finished with 10 points, four rebounds and two assists.
A first look at a depth piece, while another sits
After a long wait, Ibi Traore made his first appearance for Utah in a regular-season game.
The last time fans in the Huntsman saw him suit up was in the preseason a year ago, but a season-ending injury sidelined him last season and he had yet to play in the 2025-26 season until Saturday.
It was a modest appearance — Traore played nine minutes, made his only field goal attempt of the night and finished with two points, a rebound and a steal.
“All the credit in the world to him to be ready. A line we always use as coaches is ‘Make me play you,’ so Ibi came in,” Jensen said.
“It’s going to be probably for two, three, four minutes, but actually, he forced us to keep him in for longer, so I’m happy for him, because it’s been a long road back from the injury, but credit to him for being ready to play.”
For the second straight game, Utah sharpshooting guard Jacob Patrick was in street clothes. His absence didn’t hurt the Utes against Eastern Washington, and it gave other guards valuable minutes.
Before his injury, Patrick had earned his first start when Traore missed a game, and Patrick has been showing plenty of promise during nonconference play.
It’s something to monitor when Utah will get Patrick back out on the court.
Christmas break, then even bigger challenges
It will be nine more days before Utah (8-4) hits the floor again, when the Utes travel to face former Pac-12 rival Washington in Seattle on Dec. 29.
That post-Christmas game will be the final tuneup for Utah before Big 12 play begins with a Jan. 3 matchup with No. 1 Arizona in the Huntsman Center.
Eastern Washington’s height gave Utah some issues in this one — the Eagles had 18 offensive rebounds to just five for Utah, though the Eagles weren’t successful in turning those extra opportunities into points. The Utes only trailed 13-10 in second-chance points.
Eastern Washington had some success scoring inside, finishing with 38 points in the paint, though Utah was better, adding 52. The road team’s top two scorers were 6-foot-9 big men — Alton Hamilton IV had 19 points and nine rebounds, while Kiree Huie added 17 points and nine rebounds.
The Huskies’ top scorer is 6-foot-11 German big man, Hannes Steinbach, who averages 17.5 points and 11.9 rebounds.
Arizona is also loaded with a powerful front court, and both of Utah’s next two opponents will be a much greater challenge inside than what Utah faced Saturday night.
There’s still one more nonconference challenge before Big 12 play starts. Saturday’s effort, though, was a step in the right direction.
“I feel like the energy for our team is a big thing for us. If one person sees the ball go in the basket, we’ve got good energy for them,” Brown said.
“It gravitates to the next person, so just us playing with high joy and a high motor just gets us better every single day, and obviously bringing it into practice. You know, it starts at practice, so that’s what we do.”