U. WINS BY 67, LARGEST MARGIN IN 80 YEARS

Once again, Utah basketball fans were given the opportunity to flee the Huntsman Center early Tuesday night - perhaps they were able to get in some late-night Christmas shopping - as the Utes beat up on another patsy.

Following up on their easy win over Adams State Saturday, the Utes came up with their largest margin of victory in more than 80 years by crushing Chicago State 105-38. That's a 67-point margin for those who don't have a calculator handy.Let's see, this wasn't the home-opener patsy, and it wasn't the end-of-test-week patsy. So how in the world did this patsy called Chicago State find its way onto Utah's basketball schedule?

Good question. While Chicago State did manage to win one game earlier this year, it hasn't had a winning season in nine years and hasn't won more than 10 games since 1988. At least it is a Division I school, believe it or not.

"It's over and done, what can you do? I never thought they'd be that bad," said Ute coach Rick Majerus, who had to be as embarrassed by the outcome as the Cougars were.

Chicago State coach Craig Hodges saw his team shoot just 21 percent from the field and throw in the towel midway through the second half. Majerus was left to actually sit on the bench for much of the game and watch his third-string "gray" squad outscore the opposition 32-6 over the last eight minutes.

Majerus did everything but recruit players from the Ute band and was sympathetic to the losers. "I lost by 45 to Purdue my first year at Ball State," he said.

Last year the Utes went back to Chicago to play the Cougars and won by 19 in a game that was fairly close until the final minutes. Majerus acknowledges his team is better than last year and better than he thought it would be at this point.

"I knew we'd be young and need some confidence," he said in trying to justify scheduling the contest.

As usual Keith Van Horn and freshman Alex Jensen led the way for the Utes - Van Horn with 23 points and 12 rebounds, Jensen with 13 points and eight boards. Brandon Jessie added 11 points, while Terry Preston and Ryan Hunt both scored 10.

After a slow start when the two teams combined for 1-for-14 field-goal shooting, Utah jumped ahead by as many as 21 before settling on a 43-24 halftime lead.

As the Cougars, whose main strategy seemed to be to fire up 3-pointers from anywhere (32 of their 62 shots were treys), kept missing, Utah's lead kept growing. When Majerus took out his main men for good with 7:58 left and went with a lineup of four walk-ons plus Doug Chapman, the Utes led 73-32.