New era for Utes begins with win

It wasn't exactly easy, but the Ray Giacoletti Era at Utah started on a winning note Friday night as the Utes held off Stony Brook 72-63 at the Huntsman Center.

The Utes had a tough time shaking the scrappy Seawolves, who pulled within three points midway through the second half. But the Utes went on a 10-0 run thanks to some timely defense and coasted home from there.

Marc Jackson led the Utes with 20 points, while Andrew Bogut had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Justin Hawkins scored a career-high 16 points and came up with three steals.

"Give credit to Stony Brook, they did a good job of changing defenses and extending the pressure," said Giacoletti. "We didn't do a very good job of handling it. We turned it over 10 times in the first half, but were better in the second half with only five."

The Ute fans were starting to squirm in their seats when Stony Brook's JonPaul Kobryn sank a pair of free throws to make it 48-45 with 11:04 left in the game.

However, just nine seconds later, the Utes scored off a perfectly executed fast break with Bogut finishing it off with a decisive dunk. After a pair of free throws by Jackson, the Utes got back-to-back steals by Hawkins and Bogut, the latter leading to a breakaway dunk by Bryant Markson.

Then after another steal by Hawkins, the Utes pushed the lead to 13 on a 3-pointer by Markson. The Utes pushed the lead to 15 before the Seawolves made some late baskets.

The Utes got off to a quick start, jumping out to a 10-2 lead less than four minutes into the contest.

But they had a hard time breaking away from the pesky Seawolves, who employed a full-court press throughout most of the game.

Bogut brought the fans to their feet several times in the first half.

He drove down the lane for one dunk and put in a left-handed dunk. He also swatted away three shots.

In the final seconds of the first half the Utes got a key seven-point turnaround that gave them a 37-29 halftime lead.

The Utes led 32-29 after a basket by Cori Spencer and as the Utes were bringing the ball upcourt, Tim Drisdom was whistled with a technical foul. However Bobby Santiago missed both free throws and Utah retained the ball.