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Runnin' Utes Dismantle UCLA in a Historic Fashion

Utah scored over double UCLA's points in their 90-44 victory over the Bruins; the score marked Utah's highest margin of victory since 1999

Austin Eames

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The Utah Runnin’ Utes had themselves an all-time “get-right game” against UCLA, where the Bruins never stood a chance.

Coming off back-to-back road losses against Arizona State and Arizona, the Runnin’ Utes desperately needed a win; and on Thursday night, a win is exactly what the team got. In their first game at home since the Arizona road trip, Utah routed UCLA in an astounding 90-44 victory.

Following the team’s two-game skid, head coach Craig Smith commented on how the team needed to assess the state of their defensive game plan.

"I thought we did some things very well, specifically in the Arizona game, and then some things that were just glaringly bad," Smith said in an interview with KSL, "We were not good defensively, quite frankly, in any way, shape, or form all weekend. I was just really, really disappointed in how we guarded consistently."

Whatever the team worked on seemed to pan out; as against UCLA, Utah held their opponent to 31.5% from the field, including a terrible 17.6% from beyond the arc. Additionally, the Runnin’ Utes out-rebounded the Bruins by a margin of 22 boards, while also forcing five blocked shots.

While UCLA’s roster is far from as talented as previous years, it should not discredit the Utah's masterclass performance on both sides of the ball.

Besides dominating UCLA on defense, holding the Bruins to less than 25 points in each half, Utah’s offense was firing.

The most impressive part about the Runnin Utes’ victory, besides breaking a record for the largest margin of victory over UCLA in school history (46 points), Utah played certified team ball.

Utah had a whopping five players with over 10 points after the final buzzer. Keba Keita led the team with 14, continuing the sophomore center’s 2023-2024 hype train. Kebita was tied for the team lead in points by starting guard Cole Bajema, who scored his career-high.

Branden Carlson, Gabe Madsen, and Deivon Smith were the other three Utes with over ten points. However, Carlson’s most impressive stat of the night was his fourteen rebounds, which gave him half as many as the entire Bruins' squad. Carlson also had three blocks, while UCLA as a team only achieved one. 

As a team, the Runnin’ Utes shot a 50-40 clip on the night (over 50% from the field, 40% from three).

Speaking of the aforementioned record-breaking win, the game also marked Utah’s largest margin of victory since the team joined the Pac-12 AND was the second-largest margin of defeat in UCLA program history.

Safe to say it was a good night to be a Utah fan.

Following the game, head coach Craig Smith was full of praises for his squad.

“I thought we had an excellent week of practice coming into tonight. We needed to. We had to tighten up some things and get a lot better after the road trip last weekend. I just thought we had played out of character a bit,” said Smith.

Smith would add, “I loved how connected we played on both ends of the court. I love how we communicated at a really high level on the defensive end and we played selfless basketball.”

The Runnin’ Utes (12-4) will look to capitalize on their historic victory when they take on the Stanford Cardinals (8-7) on Sunday (Jan. 14th). 

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Austin Eames
AUSTIN EAMES

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