Jacobson shoots Utes past Toreros

Nick Jacobson had never been so open in his life. Well, at least during his Ute basketball career. So he just kept shooting. By halftime he had scored 21 points, more than the entire San Diego team, which was more than enough to propel Utah to a convincing 82-39 victory Saturday night at the Huntsman Center.

The Toreros took their nickname to heart, using a matador defense in the first half that allowed Jacobson to put shots up at nearly a one-a-minute pace. By that point, the Utes led 44-20 with Jacobson outscoring San Diego all by himself.

"I haven't been that open in quite awhile," Jacobson said. "It was a strange zone and it was hard for them to cover the corners. I got a lot of open looks and even passed up a few."

Jacobson only played eight minutes in the second half and didn't even take a shot as the Toreros finally decided to guard him.

Jacobson finished with a game-high 21 points, while fellow senior Tim Frost, who is working his way back from a back injury, scored a season-high 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and freshmen Justin Hawkins and Josh Olsen each scored 11.

Although last year the Toreros made the NCAA Tournament, this year's version is not a good team at all. They had already lost to Creighton by 35 and to such powers as Coppin State and Oakland by double digits. With the loss to Utah (5-2), they fell to 1-6 on the year.

With a lineup depleted by graduation and injuries, coach Brad Holland decided the only way to defend Utah's bigger lineup was with a 2-1-2 zone. The Utes took advantage by having their big men screen the San Diego defenders down low, while Jacobson ran from corner to corner along the baseline.

"They have such great size that we thought we had to play a lot of zone and not try to wrestle with their big men down low in a man-to-man," said Holland. "You're going to have to give up something and we gave up some corner threes — Jacobson hit a lot of them."

With 6-of-11 from 3-point range in the first half, Jacobson looked well on his way to setting a pair of Ute records, for most 3-pointers in a game (7) and most 3-pointers in a career. But the Toreros finally made some adjustments on him and the Ute big men took over in the second half.

"We put in a couple of wrinkles just for this game," said Ute coach Rick Majerus. "It worked and we got Nick the shots."