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It may not seem like a big deal just yet, but consider that any road win smells as sweet and could lead to some momentum coming home.

John Gage made all four of his 3-point attempts en route to scoring a career-high 19 points to help Stanford beat host Utah, 87-56, on Sunday night in a Pac-12 Conference men's basketball contest.

The Cardinal (3-4, 12-8) returns home to face No. 16 Oregon (7-0, 18-2) on Wednesday in an 8 p.m. contest to be televised on ESPNU.

Beating the last-place Utes may not seem like much. For Stanford, though, it comes at a good time. The Cardinal lost by over 20 points to Colorado a few days back and no one looked very good.

It was a different story against Utah. Stanford shot 50 percent from the field, won the rebounding battle and got a huge lift off the bench from Gage.

Chasson Randle added 17 points and eight rebounds while Josh Huestis had 13 points and seven boards for the Cardinal.

It was the Utes (1-7, 9-11) most lopsided loss of the season. Utah has not beaten a Division I opponent at home since a 62-53 victory over SMU on Dec. 18.

Stanford made 60 percent of its 3-pointers and controlled the boards by a 43-27 margin.

The Cardinal led, 46-26, at halftime.

Stanford has 11 conference games remaining to make up ground. The Cardinal is tied with California for seventh place in the Pac-12, but both are two games out of second place.

The Bay Area teams still have games against the conference's top four teams.

— Palo Alto Online Sports

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