Gabe Madsen scored 13 points and Utah never trailed while rolling to an easy 63-44 victory over Oregon State in Pac-12 play on Thursday night at Corvallis, Ore.
Rollie Worster recorded 12 points, seven assists and six rebounds, and Branden Carlson also had 12 points as Utah (15-7, 8-3 Pac-12) won its third straight game.
The Utes are just a half-game behind first-place UCLA in the Pac-12 after the Bruins lost to Southern California on Thursday night.
Jordan Pope scored 11 points for Oregon State (8-13, 2-8), which lost for the seventh time in the past eight games. The Beavers have scored fewer than 50 points in three of their past six games.
The victory was just Utah’s fourth in 18 visits to Corvallis.
Utah held a 39-29 rebounding advantage and shot 41.5 percent from the field, including 7 of 23 from 3-point range.
The Beavers were just 2 of 18 from behind the arc while shooting 34 percent overall. Oregon State missed its first 14 3-point attempts until Pope hit one with 5:54 remaining. Michael Rataj made the other one 36 seconds later.
The Utes scored the first 10 points of the contest with Carlson tallying the last five.
The Beavers were within 17-11 after Pope’s basket with 11:03 left in the half before Utah rattled off the next 10 points. Marco Anthony’s dunk capped the burst to make it a 16-point margin with 6:52 remaining.
The Utes led 32-16 at halftime as Oregon State was just 7 of 28 (25 percent) from the field and missed all 10 3-point attempts.
Utah’s lead reached 20 when Carlson dunked to make it 40-20 with 16:42 left in the contest.
Rataj scored for the Beavers with 15:50 remaining before the Utes ran off the next nine points. Carlson finished off that run with two free throws to make it 49-22 with 12:07 left.
Utah pushed the lead beyond 30 when Madsen drained a trey to make it 58-27 with 7:17 remaining.
Oregon State responded with its best stretch of the game by scoring 10 of the next 12 points to cut its deficit to 23 and eventually cut the deficit under 20.
–Field Level Media
