Ochai Agbaji. Photo from Utah Jazz Twitter
Rookie Ochai Agbaji scored a career-high 27 points to lead the Utah Jazz shorthand team to a 128-120 win over the Sacramento Kings on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
Agbaji, who led Kansas to the NCAA championship a year ago, made several key plays over the long haul to help the Jazz win despite the absence of injured starters Lauri Markkanen ( back), Jordan Clarkson (fingers) and Collin Sexton (hamstring).
Eight Jazz players scored twice as much as Utah (35-36) took a 25-point lead and then regained their composure after falling behind early in the fourth half.
Kelly Olynyk scored 19 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, Kris Dunn scored 18 points and 10 assists on the bench and Udoka Azubuike contributed 13 points and 8 goals for the Jazz. Walker Kessler had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 5 saves.
A special night for rookies#TakeNote | @zionsbank pic.twitter.com/sAztjwwS9V
– Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 21, 2023
De’Aaron Fox scored 37 points and seven assists and Keegan Murray had 22, but the Kings (43-28) saw their all-win streak come to an end. Sacramento also received its first loss in eight opening matches.
The Kings took the first lead with a 100-98 scoreline with 9:15 remaining and looked to be gaining momentum after erasing the Jazz’s lead with 43 points in the third inning.
However, Utah didn’t back down and took a 102-100 lead thanks to Azubuike’s consecutive pitches.
Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis, who scored just 11 points but had 12 rebounds and nine assists, broke the tie with a bucket at 2:58.
Ogbaji responded with a 3 and added another basket to give Utah a 118-115 lead with 2:06.
Fox and Olynyk then traded three points, and Dunn led the Jazz by five points with two free throws with 1:06 remaining.
A Sabonis pitch shortened the lead to 123-120, but Agbaji restored the five-point advantage with a pair of free throws with 41.1 remaining and Utah closed.
The Jazz went on to run 19-1 and draw Sacramento to 19 points in the first quarter on a 21-point lead. Profit margins increased to 25 at the beginning of the second quarter.
The Kings closed the deficit gap a bit before going into the first half with a score of 68-52. Jazz shot 56.5% away and scored 10 of 21 3-point attempts in an explosive first half.
Sacramento opened the third half with a score of 24-10 and even advanced into the fourth after the teams exchanged 7-0.
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