Utah Tech dropped the second game of its current eight-game road odyssey by an 84-53 count in an in-state tilt at Utah on Friday afternoon at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. 

How it happened 
Utah Tech (1-4/0-0 WAC) managed to weather an early flurry by the Utes, who hit four of their first five shots in scoring the first eight points of the afternoon.
 
Noa Gonsalves stopped the run with a 3-pointer from the right wing to get the Trailblazers on the scoreboard, and the process kick-started an 11-2 rally which gave them an 11-10 lead seven minutes into play.

Tennessee Rainwater followed the Gonsalves trey with one of his own, while Samuel Aribiyi knocked down a nifty turnaround jumper in the paint. Justin Bieker then hit a runner in the lane 50 second later to put his side on top.
 
Unfortunately that lead would be short-lived as Utah (4-1) rattled off nine-straight points as part of an 18-6 run to extend to a 28-17 advantage with 6:23 to go until halftime.

Unisa Turay finally ended the drought, albeit briefly, with a driving lay-in to trim the deficit to single digits. 
 
However the Turay bucket did not slow down the Utes, who hit 10 of their final 13 shots of the frame en route to a commanding 42-26 lead at the intermission.
 
Utah kept that momentum going out of the locker room, striking for six-quick points to extend to its largest lead of the game at 48-26 with 17:35 remaining.
 
The Trailblazers tried to shoot themselves back into the game, with Britton Berrett, Gonsalves and Hakim Byrd all burying 3-pointers, with the Byrd trey making it a 52-36 game with 14:43 to go.
 
That would be as close as Utah Tech would get as the Utes outscored the Blazers 18-5 over the next seven minutes, and would cruise from there to earn the in-state victory.
 
Numbers to know
Utah Tech was held without a double-digit scorer for the first time in its NCAA Division I era, and just the second time in the program's four-year era overall.

Rainwater and Byrd paced the Trailblazers with eight points apiece, while Gonsalves, Bieker, Berrett and Turay each tallied six points. 

The only other occasion that Utah Tech did not have at least one player score in double figures came just over 13 years ago to the day in a road loss at Seattle Pacific (L, 42-58; 11/11/11).

Utah Tech shot 30.3 percent on the afternoon (20-of-66), which included a 7-of-23 clip (.304) from the perimeter. The Blazers were also limited to just 6-of-14 (.429) from the foul line and managed only eight assists on their 20 made field goals. 
 
Meanwhile Gabe Madsen led four Utes in double figures with 19 points on 8-of-17 shooting with three 3-pointers. 
 
Utah connected on 32-of-66 from the floor, 8-of-27 (.296) from 3-point country, and outrebounded Utah Tech by a 50-36 margin. 
 
Up Next
Utah Tech now heads north to Missoula to play in the Montana-hosted Stew Morrill Classic this Sunday-through-Tuesday. The Trailblazers will play three games in three days, starting with a match-up against CSUN on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. (MT).