Houston takes on No. 22 Utah after Merchant's 23-point showing

Houston Cougars (4-11, 0-4 Big 12) at Utah Utes (12-3, 3-1 Big 12)

Salt Lake City; Saturday, 3:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Houston visits No. 22 Utah after Kierra Merchant scored 23 points in Houston's 89-75 loss to the BYU Cougars.

The Utes are 8-1 on their home court. Utah ranks eighth in the Big 12 with 24.3 defensive rebounds per game led by Reese Ross averaging 5.0.

The Cougars have gone 0-4 against Big 12 opponents. Houston gives up 63.8 points to opponents while being outscored by 2.4 points per game.

Utah scores 79.2 points, 15.4 more per game than the 63.8 Houston allows. Houston's 36.7% shooting percentage from the field this season is 4.0 percentage points lower than Utah has allowed to its opponents (40.7%).

The Utes and Cougars match up Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Ines Vieira is averaging 6.6 points, 5.6 assists and 1.9 steals for the Utes.

Laila Blair is scoring 12.1 points per game and averaging 2.8 rebounds for the Cougars.

LAST 10 GAMES: Utes: 8-2, averaging 73.8 points, 31.5 rebounds, 17.3 assists, 6.7 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 46.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.1 points per game.

Cougars: 2-8, averaging 63.1 points, 27.6 rebounds, 10.4 assists, 9.9 steals and 3.5 blocks per game while shooting 36.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.6 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.