The Sports Xchange
Dec 2, 2017
Donnie Tillman and David Collette each scored 16 points, leading Utah to an 80-60 win over Hawaii on Saturday at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
Tillman, Collette and Gabe Bealer shot a combined 16 of 26 from the floor. The rest of the Utes were 9 of 30.
Leland Green completed an 11-3 Rainbow Warriors' run to cut the Utes' lead to 63-51, but Utah pushed it back to 18 while Hawaii went more than five minutes without a field goal.
Drew Buggs scored 14 points and Mike Thomas added 12 for the Rainbow Warriors (4-2), who were 4 of 22 from beyond the arc.
Utah (6-1) made a 12-1 run to take a 59-40 lead on a 3-point play by Jayce Johnson with 11:03 remaining.
Hawaii trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half, but Buggs' 3-pointer with three seconds left narrowed the Utah's lead to 37-30 at the break.
Buggs and Samuta Avea combined to make 8 of 12 shots from the field in the opening 20 minutes. The rest of the Rainbow Warriors were 4 of 20.
Hawaii missed its first eight 3-point attempts of the game. Brandon Thomas connected with 1:24 to go to cut the Utah lead to 35-26.
Tillman, who came off the bench, scored seven points during a 15-4 Utah run that broke open an early tie.
The Utes travel to Indianapolis to face Butler on Tuesday. The Rainbow Warriors return home to take on Prairie View A&M on Wednesday.