Tanner Christensen led three Trailblazers in double figures as Utah Tech wrapped up its season long seven game road swing with a 77-65 victory at in-state foe Weber State on Saturday night inside the Dee Events Center. 

How it happened 
The Trailblazers (4-5/0-0 WAC) set the tone from the outset, scoring 12-straight points to race out to a quick 14-4 lead with less than six minutes gone in the first half.

Jacob Nicolds and Noa Gonsalves kickstarted the run with consecutive 3-pointers, while Christensen provided the exclamation point with a two-handed jam to give UT the early double-digit lead. 
 
Weber State (2-6) countered with five-straight Steven Verplancken points to cut the deficit in half, but Utah Tech rattled off a 14-6 spurt to extend to its biggest lead of the period at 26-13 following three Dancell Leter free throws.
 
Utah Tech had eight players score in a balanced offensive first half, led by Christensen, who led all scorers with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting as the Trailblazers enjoyed a 40-28 advantage at the halftime intermission.

The Blazers kept momentum going out of the locker room, scoring eight of the first 10 points in the frame, with six of those points coming from Nicolds, highlighted by a breakaway dunk. 

Isaiah Pope also tallied seven quick points in the period, including a circus-shot lay-in and a dagger 3-pointer, as Utah Tech opened up a 20-point lead at 55-35 with 13:35 to go.
 
Trailing 67-48 with 7:25 remaining, the Wildcats scored eight unanswered to pull to within 11 at 67-56 with 4:42 left.
 
Then after a UT timeout, Pope scored six of the Blazers' next eight points as Utah Tech pushed the lead back to 17 and never looked back from there to cruise to the big in-state road win. 
 
Numbers to know
Christensen flirted with a triple-double as he finished with a game-high 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting. The sophomore big man also led the Blazers with eight rebounds and a UT career-high five assists in 36 minutes. 

Pope poured in a season-high 19 points on a sizzling 7-of-9 from the floor to go with four boards, one assist and one steal. Pope's 19 points came up just short of his career high, which was 22 points at home vs. Tarleton (2/20/21) during the 2020-21 season.
 
Meanwhile Nicolds tied a season high with 11 points, while Leter just missed scoring in double figures as he wound up with nine points.
 
Utah Tech enjoyed a solid shooting night overall, knocking down 26-of-50 from the floor (.520), including a 6-of-19 (.316) effort from the perimeter. 
 
The Blazers also shot a season best 86.4 percent (19-of-22) from the foul line and outrebounded Weber State by a 30-22 margin.
 
Verplancken led three Wildcats in double figures with 15 points. Weber State shot an even 50.0 percent from the field (23-of-46), but were just 4-of-14 (.286) from 3-point country. 
 
Utah Tech finished its seven-game road swing with a 3-4 mark.
 
Up next
Utah Tech finally returns to the Burns Arena to open a four-game, pre-Christmas homestand next Friday night, Dec. 9, vs. Chapman University. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.