Jaylen Searles led all scorers with 33 points, and the Trailblazers needed all 33 of them, as Utah Tech fought off a furious second half Lancer rally to claim an 85-78 victory over California Baptist on Saturday afternoon inside the Burns Arena.
 
The game did look like it would a close as it turned out to be when the Trailblazers (10-14/6-7 WAC) retreated to the locker room with a commanding 45-28 halftime lead in tow.
 
Utah Tech broke the game open with a 30-10 run that spanned over 11 minutes, during which the Blazers went from down one to up 19 at 39-20 after a Searles mid-range jumper with just under four minutes to play in the first half.
 
Searles and Beon Riley each scored eight points in a rally that featured seven different Trailblazers finding the scoring column over that span in a balanced offensive attack.
 
The Blazers saw their lead swell to as many as 20 points in the early moments of the second half, but the Lancers (14-9/7-5 WAC) started building a little momentum and would eventually pare the deficit down to 10 at 54-44 with 13:21 remaining.
 
Utah Tech looked as if it had quelled the CBU push when Searles started a 7-0 spurt with a powerful two-handed jam. Tanner Christensen followed that up with a three-point play, and Hamed Olayinka threw down a one-handed dunk on a pick-and-roll play with Searles that extended the Trailblazer lead back up 17 at 61-44. 
 
Leading 65-49 after a Christensen jumper at the 10:39 mark the Blazers destined for the easy win. However that bucket would be the last field goal Utah Tech would hit over the next nine-plus minutes as the Trailblazers went cold offensively.
 
The Lancers took full advantage, outscoring Utah Tech 20-5 during a seven-minute stretch that saw the Blazer lead evaporate down to a single point at 70-69 with 3:48 to go.
 
However Utah Tech did manage to go 9-of-10 at the foul line during its field goal drought, and those nine made charity tosses proved to be just enough for the Trailblazers to keep CBU from wrestling the lead away.
 
Clinging to a 74-73 advantage with under 80 seconds remaining Searles was forced to hoist an off-balanced 3-point attempt to beat the shot clock. The ball caromed off the rim and into the waiting hands of Christensen, who flushed away the drought with a two-handed dunk to put Utah Tech back up three and fire up the Burns Arena crowd.
 
Then after CBU split a pair of free throws on its ensuing possession, Searles put an exclamation point on his career day when he knocked down a straight away 13-foot jumper and drew a foul. 
 
The junior completed the three-point play to put his side up five, and the Trailblazers would hit all six of their free throws in the waning moments to put the win on ice. 
 
Searles was masterful in his signature game as a Trailblazer, hitting on 8-of-12 from the floor and 8-of-9 at the foul line, on his way to tying for the fourth-most points scored in a game by a Utah Tech player in the program's four-year era. The junior also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds, and finished with four assists and a career-best four steals.
 
Searles' 33 points were also the second-most scored by a Utah Tech player in the program's NCAA Division I era, second only to former point guard Cameron Gooden's school record 35 points in his final game in the Trailblazers' WAC Tournament quarterfinal loss to Southern Utah last season (3/9/23).
 
Riley finished with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting in his first start since returning from injury, while Christensen added nine points with four boards and four assists.
 
Despite the second half drought, Utah Tech shot a season-high 61.2 percent from the floor (30-of-49), which included a sizzling 70.4 percent clip (19-of-27) in the first half. 
 
The Blazers also took a season-low seven 3-point attempts (3-of-7; .429), and after shooting a paltry 62.5 percent at the foul line in Thursday's win over SUU, Utah Tech connected on a season-best 91.7 percent (22-of-24) at the charity stripe on Saturday.
 
Scotty Washington paced three Lancers in double figures with 20 points. CBU shot 48.1 percent (26-of-54) for the game, though it was just 8-of-23 (.348) from the perimeter. 
 
Utah Tech will play the first of its two February road games next Thursday night when the Trailblazers head to the desert to tangle with WAC leading Grand Canyon. Tip-off inside the GCU Arena in Phoenix is set for 7 p.m. (MT).