What Utah's Alex Jensen said after win over Sam Houston

Runnin' Utes hung on to beat Bearkats

Utah Runnin' Utes head coach Alex Jensen give instruction during a game at Jon M. Huntsman Center. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Much like the first three games of the season, there were plenty of teaching moments the for the Utah basketball to take with it after hanging on for a narrow win over Sam Houston on Saturday.

It wasn't exactly the strongest of finishes from the Runnin' Utes (4-0), who nearly squandered a 20-point lead in the second half while going ice cold from the field over the final 8 minutes of regulation, allowing the Bearkats to cut their deficit to two with just over a minute remaining in the ballgame.

Terrence Brown helped stave off Sam Houston's comeback at the free-throw line, where he scored his team's final eight points as part of a 26-point outing from the 6-foot-3 junior guard.

Keanu Dawes also played a big role throughout, finishing with 17 points and 15 rebounds, including four on the offensive glass, as the Runnin' Utes ended the night with a 46-33 advantage on the boards.

Utah led by as many as 12 points in the first half before capitalizing on a 10-0 run in the second to go ahead 57-37 at the 14:22 mark. But the offense stalled down the stretch, leaving the door open for the Bearkats to rattle off a 12-2 scoring spurt of its own, making it 79-77 with 48 seconds left.

Brown made four shots at the charity stripe to push the lead back to six, then drilled two more with 4 seconds remaining after Bearkats sophomore Justin Begg got a layup to fall.

Brown's poise in crunch time helped finish the job for Utah, though Jensen would much prefer his team maintain its intensity for the whole 40 minutes moving forward.

Here's what Jensen had to say about Utah's performance after the game.

On letting Sam Houston get back in the game

"It's human nature — happens at every level, you relax. And I don't think it's malicious on anybody's part, but you just think it's gonna be easy instead of cranking it up and finishing it off. You get a little lackadaisical, but it generally happens. You start thinking scoring instead of my role on the team."

On Dawes' performance

"Dawes was great. He owned the rebounds. He's been huge for us; trying to get him to be more aggressive offensively. Ran a play for him, worked three times and then he traveled on the fourth. But he was great. He especially at the end he got those two big rebounds. Yeah, can't say enough for him about his presence on the boards."

On integrating James Okonkwo into the lineup

"It was the first game with James too. So it's everybody with the new team and new coaching staff, everybody's getting used to their roles. And James didn't play the first three games; now he plays so it affects everybody's minutes. So it just puts us in situations that, for the first time, that we'll see throughout the year."