By Cal Aboud, SDA Media Relations Student Assistant
Salt Lake City, Utah – The Arizona State men’s basketball team dropped their second consecutive road contest, falling 81-46 to No. 22 Utah Thursday night at the Huntsman Center.
The Utes, paced by a 15-point, nine-rebound outing from sophomore forward Brekkott Chapman, netted a season-high 16 three-pointers, en route to a wire-to-wire victory over the Sun Devils.
Arizona State struggled on the offensive end and closed shooting 25 percent (15-60) from the field, 22.7 percent (5-22) from beyond the arc, and 68.8 percent (11-16) from the charity stripe.
Senior guard Gerry Blakes led the way with 10 points while adding eight rebounds. Forward Obinna Oleka recorded a career-high 16 boards, while netting nine points. Savon Goodman logged nine points and seven rebounds.
Utah proved the benefactor of 15 Sun Devil turnovers, scoring 25 points on takeaways. Outperforming the Sun Devils under the rim, the Utes won on the battle of the boards 47-41.
Firing on all cylinders from the get go, Utah opened on a 15-0 run. Connecting from beyond the arc at a staggering rate, the Utes managed perimeter scores in each of their first five processions.
Hampered by early turnovers, the Sun Devils would not score their first bucket of the contest till 15:20. As the first half played on, the Utes would continue to expand upon their lead at an unrelenting pace, jumping ahead by as much 36, before heading into the half with a 44-10 advantage.
UP NEXT: The Sun Devils travel to Boulder, Colorado, to take on the Buffs on Sunday, Feb. 28 at 2:30 p.m./MT. The game is slated to be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.