Sophomore Keba Keita made 11 of 12 shots, scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds to help Utah hold off visiting Southern Utah 88-86 on Tuesday night at Salt Lake City.
Gabe Madsen scored 19 points and Ben Carlson had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Utah (6-2). Rollie Worster added 12 points and 11 assists as the Utes won their third straight game.
Freshman Braden Housley scored a career-best 23 points and junior Dominique Ford scored a season-high 23 for Southern Utah (2-6). Junior Parsa Fallah matched his career high of 20 points for the Thunderbirds, who never led while losing their third straight game.
Utah big man Branden Carlson sat out due to an undisclosed injury.
A 3-pointer by Ford pulled Southern Utah within 86-83 with 9.2 seconds remaining. Madsen hit two free throws to make it a five-point margin before Ford sank a buzzer-beating trey to make the final margin closer.
The Utes shot 54 percent from the field, including 5 of 17 (29.4 percent) from 3-point range.
The Thunderbirds made 50 percent of their shots and were 12 of 26 (46.2 percent) from behind the arc.
Utah led by seven at halftime and started strong in the second half with a 12-2 run. A layup by Madsen capped it and gave the Utes a 59-42 lead with 16:14 remaining.
Keita’s dunk made it 61-44 just 40 seconds before Southern Utah embarked on a 15-2 spurt. A 3-pointer by Ford pulled the Thunderbirds within six and Housley scored on a layup to cut Utah’s lead to 63-59 with 11:28 remaining.
Lawson Lovering made two free throws for the Utes with 11:09 left, and Ben Carlson followed with a layup to push the lead to eight.
Southern Utah made another push and moved within 72-69 on Housley’s 3-pointer with 7:17 left.
A short time later, Utah was up by eight after Rollie Worster made two free throws with 5:43 to play.
The Utes were again leading by eight when Madsen made a layup with 2:11 left.
Keita scored 13 points in the first half and the Utes led 47-40 at the break. Utah shot 60 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes.
Housley had 14 first-half points for Southern Utah, which shot 46.9 percent prior to intermission.
–Field Level Media
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