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No. 10 Utes blow out NAIA member Carroll

Dec 31, 2014 - 4:36 AM Salt Lake City, UT (SportsNetwork.com) - Jordan Loveridge tallied 14 points in 16 minutes in his return from injury, and 10th-ranked Utah had no trouble with Carroll College in an 85-49 rout at the Huntsman Center.

Brekkott Chapman added 11 points and six rebounds against the overmatched Fighting Saints, an NAIA program out of Montana. Chris Reyes finished with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting for Utah (10-2), with Delon Wright had seven assists in the easy victory.

Loveridge, who had missed the Utes' past seven games after undergoing knee surgery nearly a month ago, went 5-of-6 from the field and made three 3- pointers in four tries.

Oliver Carr paced Carroll (10-4) with 10 points, while Zach Taylor and Nick Williams had nine each in the lopsided loss.

This one was over early, as Utah hit its first seven shots while opening the game on a 16-2 run. The lead was 23-4 less than nine minutes in after layups by Chapman and Jeremy Olsen were followed by two Chapman free throws.

The Utes continued to score at will throughout the first half, with the margin reaching 30 when Wright converted a 3-point play to make the score 44-14. Utah was up by as many as 34 points and cruised into the break up 54-23 after shooting 71 percent from the field for the period.

Carroll was more competitive as the Utes played most of their starters sparingly in the second half, but never got the lead under 29 points following the intermission.

Game Notes

Utah was playing as a top-10 team for the first time since it was ranked sixth in the final Associated Press poll of the 1998-99 season ... The Utes shot 64.7 percent overall for the game and went 8-of-16 from 3-point range ... Utah finished with a 38-15 advantage in rebounds ... The Utes will open Pac-12 play on Friday, when they host USC.