The University of Utah basketball team closed out their 202-21 regular season in dominating fashion, destroying the hapless Arizona State Sun Devils, 98-59. Despite finishing the regular season 11-12, it was a positive note to go out on as they took some momentum and confidence going into the Pac-12 tournament.

Here are the takeaways from the blowout victory:

Arizona State had no answers at all

Outside of a few quick and minor spurts, the Sun Devils had no answers for Utah’s defense. Overall they went 24-64 from the field. To put that into perspective, they made as many shots as Utah’s offense assisted on at the other end. They shot a brutal 3-13 from deep and 8-16 from the free-throw line. They were also held to 16.5 points off their 75.5 scoring average.

Utah deserves a ton of credit for their game plan, but Arizona State also looked like a squad that was checked out and had no interest in playing basketball. The Pac-12’s leading scorer, Remy Martin (20.5 ppg) was held to single digits for the second game in a row, with eight points on 3-7 shooting. He only took one shot in the entire first half.

Almost everything worked for Utah

Timmy Allen was his usual self with 13 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds. Had the Utah bench not been emptied for nearly half of the second half—which was definitely the right decision—Allen likely would have recorded a triple-double. Larry Krystkowiak acknowledged that as well as Allen has been playing, the veteran leader is also fighting through some injuries.

Forward Mikael Jantunen was a steadying and crucial spark for the Utes in the first half, in which he scored 13 of his 15 overall points. He also pulled down seven rebounds, had a +/- of 34, and did what he does best by being the glue that doesn’t have everything show up in the box score.

Overall Utah shot 59.1% from the field, 38.1% from three-point range, and they were a perfect 12-12 from the free-throw line. Branden Carlson (11), Alfonso Plummer (15), and Ian Martinez (12) also joined Allen and Jantunen in double-figures.

Final regular season game was all smiles

It’s easy to enjoy yourselves when you lead a team at times by over 40 points. It was refreshing seeing the smiles and interactions with the Ute players and coaches as the game unfolded—something that’s been rare all season.

As already mentioned, Utah started emptying the bench with just under 10 minutes left in the game, giving crucial minutes to key backups and allowing seldom-used senior Brooks King an opportunity to get on the board with a late bucket.

Additionally, two guys are emerging on the bench at the right time, as Riley Battin had eight points on 2-3 behind the arc and Lahat Thioune contributed nine, including a deep three that made everyone on the bench including Larry Krystkowiak go crazy.

Up next

The Runnin’ Utes will be the no. 7 seed in the Pac-12 tournament due to them basing it on winning percentage in 2020-21. They’ll have the no. 10 Washington Huskies who only won four conference games and five overall, one being a dominant performance over Utah. The first round matchup will be Wednesday at 5PM.