The Sports Xchange
Nov 16, 2017
SALT LAKE CITY -- David Collette scored 17 points and Tyler Rawson added 12 to lead Utah to a 77-59 victory over Missouri on Thursday night.
Donnie Tillman had his first career double-double for the Utes, adding 11 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Utah (3-0) led from start to finish by clamping down on defense. Missouri (2-1) shot just 5-of-27 from the perimeter and committed 14 turnovers, leading to 17 points for the Utes.
Kassius Robertson scored 12 points and Kevin Puryear added 11 to lead the Tigers, who played without Michael Porter, Jr. Porter did not travel to Salt Lake City with Missouri, missing his second consecutive game because of a leg injury.
Missouri struggled against Utah's defense from the opening tip. The Tigers missed 14 of their first 15 shots from the field, which included an 0-of-8 start from the perimeter. They did not get their second basket of the game until Reed Nikko made a layup with 7:29 left before halftime.
Utah initially wasn't able to do much to take advantage after fighting through its own shooting struggles out of the gate. The Utes finally settled into a rhythm over the last 4 1/2 minutes of the first half, hitting 7-of-8 shots in that stretch to pull away from Missouri.
Tyler Rawson scored a tip-in basket and dunked the ball on back-to-back possessions to give Utah its first double-digit lead at 27-16. Then Rawson and Tillman made back-to-back 3-pointers to cap an 8-0 run before halftime that put the Utes up 35-19.
Utah continued its hot shooting streak into the second half. The Utes made five straight baskets after halftime -- culminating with a dunk from Collette -- to open up a 51-26 lead with 16:22 left.