Oklahoma State got off to a slow start in the first half and could never recover as Utah went on to beat the Cowboys, 83-62, on Saturday night at the Huntsman Center, in Salt Lake City.

With the loss, OSU is now 9-6 overall, 1-3 in Big 12 play, while Utah improved to 9-6 and 1-3.

Utah opened the game with a 12-0 run and led 37-26 at halftime.

The Utes opened the second half much the way they did the first half, by scoring the first six points and grew their lead to 26 points with 8:02 remaining, to put the game away. OSU never led in the game.

Utah was led by Ezra Ausar with 21 points, while Jake Wahlin and Keanu Dawes each had 16.

For the Cowboys, Bryce Thompson had a team high 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting and Marchelus “Chi Chi” Avery and Brandon    Newman added 13 and 10 respectively.

Utah shot 55.6% from the field to OSU’s 33.3%. The Utes led the scoring in the paint stat with a 46-24 advantage.

One positive stat in this game for OSU was that the Cowboys out rebounded Utah, 40-39 and outscored the Utes 15-6 on second-chance opportunities.

The Cowboys will return home on Saturday, to host Colorado at 2:00 p.m. at Gallagher-Iba Arena.