(St. George, Utah - Nov. 13, 2024) - The Trailblazer men's basketball team earned its first victory of the season on Wednesday night defeating Bethesda (Calif.), 90-59 at Burns Arena.

"It's great to get our first win. Every day you have to get better and I thought some did. We played everybody like we said we would and I thought some guys took advantage of that. Tennessee (Rainwater) definitely did, he played extremely hard, rebounded the ball," head coach Jon Judkins said.

Led by 17 points from senior guard Noa Gonsalves, Utah Tech (1-2) also got a double-double from senior guard Beon Riley who tallied 14 points and 10 rebounds.

As a team, the Trailblazers shot 43.6 percent (34-78) from the field and outrebounded Bethesda by 29 nearly doubling up the Lion Angels, 59-30.

How It Happened
Getting off to a slow start, the Trailblazers trailed 10-7 out of the gate at the first media timeout.

Responding with a 7-0 run, Utah Tech jumped back in the lead, 14-10 after a layup by freshman guard Hunter Schenck.

The Blazers stretched their lead to double digits at 24-14 thanks to a hook shot by senior guard Unisa Turay.

With their lead cut in half at 24-19, three straight layups from the Blazers pushed UT's lead back to 11. Bethesda answered with back-to-back three-pointers cutting the Blazers' lead down to five at 30-25 with 3:40 to play in the first half.

Ending the half strong, the Trailblazers went on a 13-4 run getting a three-pointer from Gonsalves at the buzzer to take a 43-29 lead to the break.

Coming out of the locker room looking to put the game on ice, the Trailblazers started the half on a 24-6 run over the first six-and-half minutes to extend their lead to 67-35 after a three-pointer by Britton Berrett at the top of the key.

The rest of the contest saw a nearly even split with the Lion Angels narrowly outscoring the Trailblazers by one as Utah Tech went on to win by 31 for its largest margin of victory since defeating Chapman by 41 points on Dec. 17, 2022.

Numbers To Know

• Sophomore guard Tennessee Rainwater came off the bench to record a career-high 13 points to go along with seven rebounds.
• Berrett also notched a season-best six points knocking down a pair of three-pointers.
• 11 different Trailblazers scored in the contest with Dallin Grant notching his first career points as a Trailblazer finishing with eight points and 10 rebounds.
• Freshman guard/forward Preston Vandermyde made his Utah Tech debut seeing three minutes of action.
• Utah Tech reached 90 points for the first time since Dec. 30, 2023 when the Trailblazers scored 96 points in an overtime win over Florida International.
• The Trailblazers improve to 4-0 all-time against Bethesda.
• The Blazers held the edge in points in the paint (52-26), points off turnovers (25-15), bench points (49-29) and second chance points (22-2).
• The Trailblazers 59 rebounds are tied for the third-most in a single game in program history and only three shy of tying the program record of 62 set at Cal Poly Pomona on Nov. 10, 2017.

Up Next
With its next eight contests away from Burns Arena, the Trailblazers get the road swing started at Wyoming (2-1) on Saturday at 7 p.m.