Cal Basketball: Utah Blows Out the Bears in Salt Lake City

Cal's chance of finishing with a winning conference record was erased by Utah, which rolled to an 88-59 victory over the Bears on Saturday night in Salt Lake City.

Cal (13-17, 9-10 Pac-12) is still hoping to finish with a .500 Pac-12 record by beating Stanford in its final regular-season game on Thursday, and a 10-10 conference record would end a streak of six straight Cal seasons with losing Pac-12 marks.

To do that Cal will have to perform better than it did on Saturday, when Utah's dominance on the boards and Branden Carlson's 30 points doomed Cal. The 7-foot Carlson hit 12-of-17 shots, including 4-for-6 on three-pointers and added 10 rebounds and four blocks.

Utah (18-11, 9-9 Pac-12) outrebounded Cal 47-29 and outscored Cal 15-2 on second-chance points. Utah's Deivon Smith added 18 points and 10 assists, as the Utes recorded one-sided wins over Stanford and Cal this week.

Cal standout Jaylon Tyson began the game averaging 20.3 points, but he had just seven points on Saturday on 2-for-11 shooting. Cal shot 34.4% from the field and 7-for-29 from three-points range, while Utah shot 50.8% from the field, including 58.6% in the second half.

The game was critical for the Utes, who are on the fringe of getting an NCAA tournament berth, and they were impressive on Saturday as they built a 20-point lead with nine minutes left and pushed the margin to 27 points with 5:44 to go..

Not much went right for Cal in the first half, which ended with Utah holding s 42-32 lead. Bears forward Keonte Kennedy was ejected from the game with 5:12 left in the first half for committing a flagrant 2 foul. It occurred when Kennedy extended his left arm while driving with the ball and hit Utah defender Hunter Erickson in the groin.

Branden Carlson led Utah in the first half, hitting 3-of-4 three-point shots and scoring 17 points. However, Utah domination of the boards was the biggest difference in the first half. The Utes picked up 10 offensive rebounds and outscored Cal 11-0 on second-chance points.

Utah scored the first three points of the game and held the lead throughout the first half. The Utes led by as many as 12 points late in the first half.

Jalen Cone had 10 first-half points for Cal, but the Bears were just 4-for-16 on three-point shots in the first 20 minutes.

Saturday's contest was the Bears’ only game against Utah this season. Cal played the Utes and Oregon State just once this season, but will have faced every other Pac-12 opponent twice after the Bears play Stanford next Thursday in their final regular-season game.