Utes Dominate First Half In Win Over Colorado

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Utes improved to 2-2 in Pac-12 Conference play with a 78-69 victory over Colorado.

Utah benefited from a dominant first half, in which they held the Buffaloes to just 19 points. In the second half, the Utes were outclassed by Colorado and perhaps broke a nervous sweat down the stretch.

After Utah surged to a 9-3 early, Colorado nearly caught the Utes at 9-7. Then, sparked by a 3-poiner by Donnie Tillman, the Utes buried the Buffaloes on 25-4 run to take a 34-11 lead with 5:49 remaining in the first half.

Timmy Allen’s free throw with 2:13 remaining gave Utah a 26-point lead, its biggest of the half.

At halftime, the Utes led 41-19.

“It’s never going to be perfect, but right up until about the last four minutes of the first half it was really solid. We played with a tremendous amount of energy, I thought, defensively,” said head coach Larry Krystkowiak after the game.

Despite having a huge lead going into the second half, it was no cakewalk for the Utes to finish the game.

Colorado cut the lead to 70-60 with three and a half minutes left. Both Gach nailed a 3-pointer on the next possession to give Utah a 13-point cushion. Colorado continued to threaten what was once a 28-point lead for Utah, but ultimately came up nine points short in the defeat.

By The Numbers

Sedrick Barefield led the game with 22 points with five 3-pointers made.

Allen finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds to complete the double-double.

Colorado was led by D’Shawn Schwartz, who turned in 21 points.

Next Up

The Utes will hit the road and face Stanford on Thursday at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.