SALT LAKE CITY -- Osiris Eldridge and Lloyd Phillips each scored 17 points to lead Illinois State over Utah 73-63 on Saturday.
The Redbirds (8-2) led from start to finish.
When the Utes cut the margin to 50-45 on Luka Drca's 3-pointer, Eldridge hit a jumper and added a couple of free throws to raise the lead back to 9 and the Utes never got within fewer than 7 points the rest of the way.
"I thought our defense was really good, but we had 10 turnovers in the second half and four of them were offensive fouls," Utah coach Jim Boylen said. "We won the rebound game, but we gave it up on our end offensively."
Austin Hill scored 12 and Dinma Odiakosa added 10 as the Redbirds returned to their winning ways.
Illinois State won its first seven games before losing to Niagara and Ohio.
Kim Tillie led Utah (5-6) with 19 points and Carlon Brown scored 15. Drca had 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Utes, who were playing without forward Jay Watkins, sidelined with an abdominal strain.
"I know it sounds cliché, but we need take it step-by-step, day-by-day and not look at what is ahead, but fix things as fast as we can before conference," Brown said.
"Our defense was locked in tonight. We were scoring and it was a great game," Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich said. "Even if we had not, I don't think we would have backed down. Our guys were really excited to play this game. The Huntsman Center is a big-time venue, Utah is a great team nationally so our guys were in a in a mindset to play tough."
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