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  Tuesday, Nov. 28 9:00pm ET
Utah pulls away from NAIA foe
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- For the first few minutes against Cardinal Stritch, the Utah Utes (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) looked like they were really going to miss coach Rick Majerus.

After learning Majerus will rehabilitate his knee and not coach until January, the Utes fell behind 9-2 before roaring back to beat the NAIA school 93-47 Tuesday night.

Nick Jacobson
Utah's Nick Jacobson gains control of the ball as Cardinal Stritch's Cale Vogel goes tumbling out of bounds.

"We knew we were going to win, but we still needed to come out with intensity and we didn't do that," said Jeff Johnsen, who scored a career-high 20 points.

Majerus will miss about five weeks to strengthen a surgically repaired knee. He traveled Monday to Las Vegas, where he plans to undergo a rigid two-week rehabilitation program.

After Cardinal Stritch took the 9-2 lead on Greg Arnold's jumper, Utah assistant coach Dick Hunsaker replaced the starting lineup except Kevin Bradley with Chris Burgess, Britton Johnsen, Trace Caton and Nick Jacobson. That group went on a 17-2 run over the next five minutes.

"We didn't come out with the same fire as we had in Puerto Rico (where Utah went 2-1 last week) and we had to turn it around to let them know we weren't joking around," said Bradley, a junior college transfer who was 8-for-10 from the field for the Utes (4-1).

Utah shot 55 percent and ran its home winning streak to 54 games, the longest in NCAA Division I.

Bill Neubauer and Arnold each had 12 points for Cardinal Stritch (5-3), which dropped two games on its Utah road trip after starting 5-1.

"We knew we would have to play perfect in order to beat Utah and for about three minutes that happened," Crusaders coach Dennis Fox said.

With its tallest starter at 6-foot-5, the Milwaukee school was outsized by the Utes, but used an array of long jumpers and backdoor cuts for layups to keep within striking distance most of the first half.

"We weren't pretty out there," Hunsaker said. "We embarrassed ourselves in the first half. I'm sorry people had to watch that."

Utah closed the half with a 9-3 run, and used a 20-1 run early in the second to make it 64-31. The Utes outrebounded the Crusaders 46-20.

"After halftime they left me open and I happened to be hitting my shots tonight," said Johnsen, who scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half.

Hunsaker was the associate head coach under Majerus at Ball State from 1987-89 and later led the Cardinals to two NCAA tournament as head coach.
 


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