Perez scores 27, Collins adds 19 to help Arizona State beat Utah 82-70

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Jose Perez scored a season-high 27 points, Frankie Collins added 14 of his 19 points in the second half and Arizona State beat Utah 82-70 Thursday night for its third win in a row.

Arizona State (9-5, 3-0 Pac-12) lost three games in a row — by an average of 14.6 points — to end its nonconference slate.

Perez hit a 3-pointer to give Arizona State the lead for good with 51 seconds left in the first half and then stole the ball, led the fast break and lobbed a pass to Jamiya Neal for an alley-oop layup 21 seconds later that made it 41-36 at halftime.

Keba Keita threw down a dunk and Deivon Smith converted a three-point play to cap a 7-2 spurt that trimmed Utah’s deficit to 48-47 with 13:46 to play but Collins answered 15 seconds later with a 3-pointer, the first of his nine consecutive ASU points as the Sun Devils scored 13 of the next 19. Collins hit a 3 and Perez added another less than a minute to make it 67-56 with 5:28 to play and Utah trailed by double figures the rest of the way.

Branden Carlson scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Utah (11-3, 2-1), which had won eight games in a row since suffering back-to-back losses against No. 3 Houston and St. John’s at the Charleston Classic in mid-November. Smith finished with 13 points.

Arizona State plays host to Colorado, and Utah visits No. 10 Arizona, on Saturday

___ Get poll alerts and updates on AP Top 25 basketball throughout the season. Sign up here ___ AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

Source