Down and out: Runnin' Utes handle Bruins, beat UCLA by 46 points

SALT LAKE CITY — Keba Keita took an otherwise lackluster game into his own hands.

The sophomore big man who was questionable coming into Thursday night's game with an injury showed no signs of weakness against UCLA. The Bamako, Mali, native jumpstarted an offense that was struggling, and helped Utah to what ended up being a 28-3 run to put distance on the visiting Bruins.

If UCLA head coach Mick Cronin had thrown in the white towel midway through the second half, nobody sitting next to him on the bench would have blamed him.

Keita finished with 14 points and four rebounds, and the Runnin' Utes went on to beat the Bruins 90-44 in blowout fashion — the largest win for Utah in the Pac-12 era in conference play.

Thursday night's performance was also the largest margin of victory for a Utah (12-4, 3-2 Pac-12) team over UCLA (6-10, 1-4 Pac-12) in program history, topping a 32-point win (71-39) in Salt Lake City on Jan. 5, 2015. With a late run, UCLA narrowly avoided its largest defeat in program history (48 points).

Keita added the fuel, and the rest of the team joined in on a hot-shooting second half where Utah finished 56% from the floor in the final half.

"He makes winning plays," Branden Carlson said. "I think just his physicality and energy he brings really lifts everyone else up. He wants you to compete just as hard as he does. You know what you're gonna get from Keba every game. He doesn't come in and to do things he shouldn't be doing or things he doesn't know how to do."

Utah head coach Craig Smith credited Keita with jumpstarting the offense in the second half, saying the sophomore "impacts winning at a high level."

"He plays with such force, he is so athletic and physical, and you feel that guy — the whole arena feels that guy — when he's on the floor. ... He's an electric athlete and obviously everybody feeds off of that," Smith said. "He brings energy off the bench, and you just feel it."

Though Thursday night was all about the Utes, it was the return game for former Utah guard Lazar Stefanovic, who transferred to UCLA in the offseason. The Huntsman Center crowd booed Stefanovic every time he touched the ball to make their presence known.

In his return, Stefanovic finished with 8 points on 3-of-10 shooting, though no UCLA player finished in double digits.

Utah outscored UCLA 57-21 in the second half, and shot 56% from the floor and 47% from 3-point range to make up for a dismal shooting effort in the first half.

The most entertaining aspect of the first half didn't even take place on the court, as former Washington wide receiver Taeshaun Lyons announced his commitment to Utah on social media minutes into the Runnin' Utes game.

In short, it was a first half not to remember.

Utah shot 41% from the floor and had only 33 first-half points, while UCLA shot a meager 34% and trailed the home team by 10 points at the halftime break in an otherwise inconsistent half of basketball for both teams.

Though the Utes held a double-digit lead late in the first half, the game was anything but close against a UCLA team that has struggled to piece together an offense this season. The Bruins average 41.6% shooting from the field this season, good for 311th in the country.

Utah, though, thought they'd join UCLA for a stretch in the poor shooting — and poor passing for good measure.

All of that got better in the second half as Utah took control of the game and built up a lead that continued to grow the longer the half continued until Cole Bajema hit a corner 3-pointer to give Utah a 50-point lead with 2:57 left to play.

"One thing I know about going on huge runs, you've got to do it by getting stops," Smith said. "It's easy to talk about the offense — I understand that — but if you're not getting stops, it's hard to separate from people. And that's where I thought tonight all started; it was just the way we guarded and how we defended as a team. They didn't have one guy that got double digits tonight."

Bajema finished with 14 points, including four made 3-pointers, for a Utah team that had five players reach double digits. Brandon Carlson added 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Gabe Madsen and Deivon Smith each finished with 11 points apiece.

"Just loved how connected we played on both ends of the floor," Smith said. "I loved how we communicated at a really, really high level on the defensive end. And we just played selfless basketball."

Utah now turns its attention to a road contest against Stanford on Sunday (3 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Networks).

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