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The most compelling battle Sunday afternoon was Jakob Poeltl against himself. Every missed shot — which only happened three times — he smiled and threw up his hands.

Perfection was desired, but wholly unnecessary.

Utah's 88-47 win over Washington State on Sunday afternoon, the Utes' fifth straight over the Cougars, morphed from a Pac-12 game to a series of contests: Just how much could Utah win by? How many points could Poeltl score on a hapless interior defense? Just how much better could the Utes look than the program currently dwelling in the league's basement?

Respectively: They won by 41, Poeltl scored 25 and the Utes (19-7, 8-5) pushed around the Cougars like a schoolyard bully. Student section chants of "Pullman sucks" seemed excessive for all the abuse Washington State took on the court.

For Utah, of course, it was a ball.

"We haven't had a dominant performance like that in a while," Poeltl said. "We had some great ball movement. We created great shots on offense. We played great defense. That makes playing so much more fun."

Poeltl drove the effort with his sixth 20-plus point effort in seven games and powering Utah's 50 points in the paint and adding 10 rebounds for his 10th double-double this season.

Three other Utes finished in double digits: Jordan Loveridge (14), Brekkott Chapman (12) and Kyle Kuzma (10).

But Poeltl was the leading man, shooting 11 for 14 in the game. He produced the top highlight: picking off a pass from Ike Iroegbu and dashing down for a powerful one-handed flush. The SportsCenter-quality clip drew life from a mostly placid Huntsman Center crowd of 11,464.

"I kind of had a little bit of a tunnel vision right there," he said. "I saw an opening and thought, 'OK, I'm gonna go for it.'"

The second-biggest highlight was senior walk-on Austin Eastman hitting a 3-pointer with three minutes to go as Utah's lead surged past 40 points.

The dominance was overwhelming. Utah shot 53 percent to Wazzu's 30.6 percent, their shifting defenses keeping the Cougars off guard. The Utes had more rebounds (38-30), points off turnovers (26-8), assists (21-10) and steals (11-4) than Washington State, among other compelling numbers that tilted the game their way.

Even the players on the end of Utah's bench extended the lead: Walk-on Austin Montgomery drew admiration from his coaches for his tough defense and 6 points in reserve.

Larry Krystkowiak kept his jacket on in Utah's most stress-free conference win of the season, but elected not to pile on Washington State: He figured the Cougars' double-overtime loss in Boulder, Colo., on Thursday played a role in wiping them out before the tip-off and condemning them to their 12th straight loss.

"The Colorado-Utah road trip is a hard one, and we did a nice job of holding serve," he said. "I don't ever want to take it lightly and make fun of any situation. This league is a grind."

Once Washington State lost its Valentine, things started to turn.

WSU's junior center and leading shot-blocker Valentine Izundu picked up his second foul before three minutes into the game. After Ernie Kent put him on the bench for the rest of the half, the Utes pounded the lane for a 24-2 first-half advantage in points in the paint.

No one hit harder than Poeltl, who was 7 for 9 in the first half with 16 points — including a leaping tip-in over traffic that left everyone else in the scrum looking skyward.

The most any Ute played was Loveridge's 27 minutes, which is helpful for the team to keep its legs ahead of an important road trip to Southern California.

"It's nice to get some other guys in who don't get to play, because we're going to need everyone down the stretch," Loveridge said. "It's also hard to find times to rest and get a few extra days to rest."

kgoon@sltrib.com Twitter: @kylegoon —

Storylines

R The Utes win their second straight game, sweeping Washington schools in the regular season.

• Jakob Poeltl scores 25 points on 11 for 14 shooting.

INSIDE • The Utes hold Washington star Josh Hawkinson to 4 points. > B2