SALT LAKE CITY — It didn't take long to see that Emanuel Sharp was playing on a different level Tuesday night at the Huntsman Center.
In the first 10 minutes of the game, the Houston guard had 18 points behind six made 3-pointers on seven attempts. Sharp missed his first 3-point attempt 50 seconds into the game, and then went lights out over the next nine minutes and hit six straight shots from deep before being subbed out of the game.
Catch-and-shoot 3-pointer? Easy work. Spot-up jumper from deep? No problem. From the logo? Light work. Sharp made it all look effortless Tuesday night.
His hot shooting, mixed with a stingy team defense, helped No. 3 Houston to a 15-point lead in the first half that eventually ballooned to a 22-point lead en route to a 66-52 weeknight win over Utah.
It was the lowest points scored by Utah this season.
Utah (9-15, 1-10 Big 12) got some aggressive play out of Keanu Dawes as one of the only players to find some relief against Houston's defense, but it wasn't enough to combat the hot shooting of Sharp or Houston's overall game play.
Dawes finished with a team-high 15 points and eight rebounds, while Seydou Traore added 12 points, two rebounds and three assists.
Utah's two leading scorers for the season, Terrence Brown and Don McHenry, were held to just 17 points combined, with Brown finishing with 12 points — half of which coming from the free-throw line — on 3-of-8 shooting.
For Houston (22-2, 10-1 Big 12), Sharp eventually cooled in his shooting — if hitting only two more 3-pointers over the course of the game counts — but other players got into a rhythm to help the team pull away from Utah.
Sharp finished with a team-high 27 points — all but one being 3-pointers and a free throw — in 31 minutes for Houston. No other player for the Cougars finished with double-digit scoring, though Joseph Tugler and Milos Uzan both finished with 9 points apiece.
This story will be updated.
