SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Deivon Smith put up his second triple-double of the season and Cole Bajema knocked down five of the six 3-point shots he took to help power Utah to a 90-68 win over Stanford on Thursday night.
The victory makes Utah 8-9 in the Pac-12 Conference and in seventh place with three games left in the regular season.
Bajema hit his first 3-pointer 19 seconds into the contest as Utah forged a 20-8 lead in just the first seven minutes. Stanford rallied and cut its deficit to 22-16 on Kanaan Carlyle’s jumper midway through the half, but the Cardinal did not score again until Andrej Stojakovic scored at the basket at the 5:51 mark to cut the Utah lead to 34-18.
Utah (17-11, 8-9) shot 49.2% from the field (32 of 65), including 12 of 28 from 3-point range. Smith finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. His first triple-double came in Utah’s triple-overtime loss to No. 8 Arizona, putting up 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Bajema was 6 of 11 from the field and finished with a team-high 21 points. Lawson Lovering came off the bench to shoot 6-for-6 from the floor and 5-of-9 from the line with five rebounds to add 17 points. Gabe Madsen hit 3 of 8 from distance to score 15 points.
Michael Jones paced Stanford (12-16, 7-11) with 20 points. Stojakovic had 13 points and six rebounds and Karlyle finished with 10 points. The Cardinal shot 49.1% from the field (28 of 57), but was just 4 of 15 from beyond the arc.
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Utah plays host to California Saturday, its only regular season game with the Golden Bears. Stanford plays at Colorado Sunday,
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