The Runnin’ Utes opened the Pac-12 Tournament in dominating fashion on Wednesday night, defeating the No. 11 seed Arizona State Sun Devils, 90-57.

The No. 6 seed Utes were in control from start to finish, allowing them to rest their starters for Thursday’s second round game.

Here are the takeaways from the game:

Carlson is one tough dude

One game after what many observers would call being deliberately injured against Oregon, Utah star Branden Carlson fought through the pain by playing with a massive elbow brace.

Just his presence alone was important, despite him understandably not delivering one of his typical performances. Carlson played 18 minutes and went 2-4 from the field and 2-3 from three-point range.

With Branden’s limitations, both Ben Carlson and Keba Keita helped pick up some of the slack. They each finished 3-4 from the field as Ben finished with eight points and Keita with seven points. Branden Carlson finished with only two rebounds, as the team wanted him to stay out of harm’s way. However, Utah beat Arizona State on the glass, 42-36. Both Lawson Lovering and Deivon Smith had 10 rebounds each.

Injuries can be unpredictable. Hopefully for Carlson and Utah’s sake, the elbow is good to go on back-to-back nights.

Smith narrowly misses another triple-double

The positive aspect of Utah's blowout win is that the starters were able to rest. The negative aspect was that Deivon Smith fell just one assist short of achieving his fourth triple-double of the season. If he had achieved it, he would have been the second player ever to record a triple-double in the Pac-12 Tournament.

The Utah bench was unaware of how close Smith was to achieving a triple-double at the time they pulled him out. Once they realized, it would have been unwise to put him back in the game during a blowout just to chase a record. The right decision was made to keep Smith out even after the realization. It's unfortunate that this information was not communicated to the coaching staff before Smith was taken out of the game.

Bajema and Erickson need to stay consistent

At this stage of the season, injuries occur and bench players are tested. Sometimes it is the depth and unexpected contributions from players that lead to surprising tournament runs. On Wednesday night, Utah experienced this kind of performance from both Cole Bajema and Hunter Erickson. The two players combined to shoot 9-15 from three-point range, with Bajema making three consecutive shots. Erickson scored 11 points in the game, while Bajema achieved another career-high with 22 points. Now, Bajema must remain focused and consistent, especially after scoring only eight points in the three games that were sandwiched in between his career-high performances.

Up next

The Runnin' Utes will begin their game tonight at 9:30 MST against the No. 3 seed Colorado Buffaloes. In their previous two meetings this season, Utah won by five points in Salt Lake and suffered a 24-point loss in Boulder.