Utah Utes basketball: Team can't overlook Bengals

After several tough games recently, the Utah basketball team would seem to be getting a break tonight playing against a 2-5 Idaho State team at the Huntsman Center.

Or is it?

A year ago this weekend, a 5-1 Utah basketball team took a trip up to Pocatello to play an Idaho State team with a 1-5 record and suffered a 72-68 setback. And after the way this season has gone so far, the 3-4 Utes aren't looking at any game as easy.

The Bengals have already suffered blowout losses to BYU by 34 points and to Utah State by 33 points. However, they are coming off a 10-point loss at Notre Dame and earlier they lost by just five at Bradley, a team the Utes saw in Las Vegas last weekend.

The Utes are coming off a tough road loss against Big Sky favorite Weber State, where they led by 14 points in the first half, but didn't make the key plays down the stretch.

Coach Jim Boylen called it a "good game" and was happy with many parts of his team's performance.

"Our defense is getting better," he said. "But our transition defense has to improve and getting loose balls has to improve."

Boylen was particularly happy with the play of 7-foot-3 center David Foster, who set a school record with 10 blocked shots in only 22 minutes.

"He's farther along than I thought he'd be," Boylen said. "He's willing, very coachable and he's a winner. He's going to be a great player."

The Bengals are led by guard Amorrow Morgan, who scored nine of the Bengals' final 10 points against Utah last year and leads the team with a 16.1 average. Other starters include guard Broderick Gilchrist (12.6 ppg), forward Demetrius Monroe (10.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg), guard Donnie Carson (5.3 ppg) and 7-foot center Deividas Busma (3.4 ppg).

Utah's top scorer is junior Carlon Brown, who averages 13.6 points per game. Kim Tillie, coming off a 20-point, 10-rebound game against Weber State, averages 10.0 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds per game. Foster averages 5.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 blocked shots per game.

At guard, the Utes count on Luka Drca and Marshall Henderson, who both average 8.9 points per game. Drca leads the team with 4.3 assists per game, while committing just 1.3 turnovers per game.