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Friday, November 24
Salt Lake City, Utah
6:00 PM
University of Utah
5-1
85
vs
69
Eastern Washington
3-4
1
2
F
Eastern Washington
27
42
69
Utah
46
39
85
Collette's 24 Points put Runnin' Utes Back in Win Column
11/24/2017 9:38 PM | Men's Basketball
Utah downs Eastern Washington in return to Huntsman Center
SALT LAKE CITY – David Collette was nearly perfect from the field while registering a career-high 24 points and leading the Utah Runnin' Utes (5-1) to an 85-69 win over the Eastern Washington Eagles (3-4) Friday evening at the Huntsman Center.
Collette's new career-high surpasses his previous mark of 22 points, which he scored against Washington State last season (02/09/17), and his 11 made field goals are a new career-high as well. He tallied eight field goals last season against Stephen F. Austin (12/25/16).
The Eagles opened the contest winning the tip-off and scoring a quick bucket, but Utah used runs of 9-3, 9-0 and 12-0 to later take a commanding 37-20 lead into the final media timeout. The Utes and Eagles would trade a few baskets over the final three minutes, but Utah would take a 46-27 lead into the break.
The Utes shot .630 (17-of-27) from the field, which included a .455 (5-of-11) effort from downtown. Meanwhile, Utah's defense limited EWU to just a .324 (11-of-34) effort through the first 20 minutes of play. Collette led all players at the break with 18 points. If he didn't play another minute in the second half, he would have registered his season-high in the first period. He was 8-of-9 from the field and pulled down four rebounds for Utah in the first half.
Utah opened the second half with back-to-back three-pointers from Gabe Bealer and Sedrick Barefield, then later got four more points from Collette during a mini 6-0 run, which forced EWU to call an early timeout in the period, down 60-29. The Eagles would go on a 12-2 run midway through the second period and cut the deficit to 69-46. EWU would get within 16points late in the contest, while limiting Utah without a bucket over the final 2:22 of play.
Utah finished the contest shooting .517 (30-of-58) from the field, .346 (9-of-26) from the three-point arc and .800 (16-of-20) from the charity stipe. The Utes would go onto limit the Eagles to just a .394 (26-of-66) shooting effort overall in the game. EWU made just five of 27 total three-point attempts, for a .185 shooting percentage.
The Utes will have an entire week off before playing its next game as Utah returns to the court next Saturday, Dec. 2, hosting Hawaii at the Huntsman Center. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. MT and the contest will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks.
GAME NOTES
• Tonight marked the first-ever meeting between Utah and Eastern Washington in the regular-season. Utah is now 1-0 all-time against the Eagles.
• Utah moved to 156-61 all-time against teams from the Big Sky Conference. The Utes have won six of the past seven meetings against Big Sky opponents, with its last loss coming back on Nov. 16, 2012, against Sacramento State.
• Utah's 46 points and .630 shooting percentage were first-half season-highs. The .630 shooting percentage is the highest in a first half since shooting .677 (21-of-31) against Washington last season back on Jan. 21, 2017.
• Collette finished with a game-high 24 points (11-of-12), which marks a new career-high with the Utes. He was just eight points from his all-time career-high of 32 points, which he scored as a freshman at Utah State (12/17/14)
• Justin Bibbins finished with a season-high eight rebounds on the evening, surpassing his previous high of five rebounds that he recorded against both Mississippi Valley State and Missouri.
• Barefield and Tillman finished the game as the only other two Utes in double figures. Barefield finished with 12 points, while Tillman tallied 10 points. Tyler Rawson led the way with five assists on the evening.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Utah vs. Eastern Washington | November 24, 2017
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
On what Collette was able to do, to exploit mismatches …
"I think David has some pride, he didn't play very well against UNLV and we wanted to get the ball into the post and he wasn't that productive doing so a couple of nights ago. That's the great thing about this game is you get the chance to bounce back and our guys did a nice job of feeding it to him and he was obviously super-efficient you know when he got his hands on the ball. We know what he can do down there, we got gain a little confidence from that and we got to keep it up. We have to have an interior presence if we want to win some games against some good teams and it's been a grind you know…for us and Eastern Washington, eight days four games that's about as intense as it gets and those five days or so in Vegas wasn't easy to come back and so it was neat to see him, we ran our first three sets for him in the post and he was efficient so the guys did a nice job feeding it to him."
On if he would prefer leading scorers each game or consistency from a couple different players …
"I think consistency for each guy is important. Having said that, if we end up with five guys in double figures there is different ways to do that and we've had some guys step up. I have always thought its nice when you don't have someone at the top of the scouting report and if they have an off night maybe your team can't function. I think we've proven to have five or six guys that could put up some pretty good numbers from an offensive point of view. What I like about our team is that our guys don't really care as to who is doing the scoring. Justin in Vegas had a great night the first go around and I thought we have been getting pretty good production, Ty has been about as solid as anybody but we can't have a 25-point game followed by a three-point game. That sometimes is a little bit troublesome for some of our guys but as long as we do the averages and the most important thing is you are getting W's. However you go about that is not really important as long as you are getting the W's and I think, as I said after the UNLV game, we've got all the team concept down, our guys really enjoy playing together I think we are connected and guys are truly cheering for each other but at the end of the day we can't forget that there is a lot of one on one match ups within the game of basketball and we need to have our top players making some plays and we got a good douse of that medicine against UNLV and had some guys that out played us in one on one situations, block out situations and let's not get lost in all of the team building and culture building stuff because it's okay to be selfish when it comes time to guard a guy and really try to get the best of them."
Collette's new career-high surpasses his previous mark of 22 points, which he scored against Washington State last season (02/09/17), and his 11 made field goals are a new career-high as well. He tallied eight field goals last season against Stephen F. Austin (12/25/16).
The Eagles opened the contest winning the tip-off and scoring a quick bucket, but Utah used runs of 9-3, 9-0 and 12-0 to later take a commanding 37-20 lead into the final media timeout. The Utes and Eagles would trade a few baskets over the final three minutes, but Utah would take a 46-27 lead into the break.
The Utes shot .630 (17-of-27) from the field, which included a .455 (5-of-11) effort from downtown. Meanwhile, Utah's defense limited EWU to just a .324 (11-of-34) effort through the first 20 minutes of play. Collette led all players at the break with 18 points. If he didn't play another minute in the second half, he would have registered his season-high in the first period. He was 8-of-9 from the field and pulled down four rebounds for Utah in the first half.
Utah opened the second half with back-to-back three-pointers from Gabe Bealer and Sedrick Barefield, then later got four more points from Collette during a mini 6-0 run, which forced EWU to call an early timeout in the period, down 60-29. The Eagles would go on a 12-2 run midway through the second period and cut the deficit to 69-46. EWU would get within 16points late in the contest, while limiting Utah without a bucket over the final 2:22 of play.
Utah finished the contest shooting .517 (30-of-58) from the field, .346 (9-of-26) from the three-point arc and .800 (16-of-20) from the charity stipe. The Utes would go onto limit the Eagles to just a .394 (26-of-66) shooting effort overall in the game. EWU made just five of 27 total three-point attempts, for a .185 shooting percentage.
The Utes will have an entire week off before playing its next game as Utah returns to the court next Saturday, Dec. 2, hosting Hawaii at the Huntsman Center. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. MT and the contest will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks.
GAME NOTES
• Tonight marked the first-ever meeting between Utah and Eastern Washington in the regular-season. Utah is now 1-0 all-time against the Eagles.
• Utah moved to 156-61 all-time against teams from the Big Sky Conference. The Utes have won six of the past seven meetings against Big Sky opponents, with its last loss coming back on Nov. 16, 2012, against Sacramento State.
• Utah's 46 points and .630 shooting percentage were first-half season-highs. The .630 shooting percentage is the highest in a first half since shooting .677 (21-of-31) against Washington last season back on Jan. 21, 2017.
• Collette finished with a game-high 24 points (11-of-12), which marks a new career-high with the Utes. He was just eight points from his all-time career-high of 32 points, which he scored as a freshman at Utah State (12/17/14)
• Justin Bibbins finished with a season-high eight rebounds on the evening, surpassing his previous high of five rebounds that he recorded against both Mississippi Valley State and Missouri.
• Barefield and Tillman finished the game as the only other two Utes in double figures. Barefield finished with 12 points, while Tillman tallied 10 points. Tyler Rawson led the way with five assists on the evening.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Utah vs. Eastern Washington | November 24, 2017
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
On what Collette was able to do, to exploit mismatches …
"I think David has some pride, he didn't play very well against UNLV and we wanted to get the ball into the post and he wasn't that productive doing so a couple of nights ago. That's the great thing about this game is you get the chance to bounce back and our guys did a nice job of feeding it to him and he was obviously super-efficient you know when he got his hands on the ball. We know what he can do down there, we got gain a little confidence from that and we got to keep it up. We have to have an interior presence if we want to win some games against some good teams and it's been a grind you know…for us and Eastern Washington, eight days four games that's about as intense as it gets and those five days or so in Vegas wasn't easy to come back and so it was neat to see him, we ran our first three sets for him in the post and he was efficient so the guys did a nice job feeding it to him."
On if he would prefer leading scorers each game or consistency from a couple different players …
"I think consistency for each guy is important. Having said that, if we end up with five guys in double figures there is different ways to do that and we've had some guys step up. I have always thought its nice when you don't have someone at the top of the scouting report and if they have an off night maybe your team can't function. I think we've proven to have five or six guys that could put up some pretty good numbers from an offensive point of view. What I like about our team is that our guys don't really care as to who is doing the scoring. Justin in Vegas had a great night the first go around and I thought we have been getting pretty good production, Ty has been about as solid as anybody but we can't have a 25-point game followed by a three-point game. That sometimes is a little bit troublesome for some of our guys but as long as we do the averages and the most important thing is you are getting W's. However you go about that is not really important as long as you are getting the W's and I think, as I said after the UNLV game, we've got all the team concept down, our guys really enjoy playing together I think we are connected and guys are truly cheering for each other but at the end of the day we can't forget that there is a lot of one on one match ups within the game of basketball and we need to have our top players making some plays and we got a good douse of that medicine against UNLV and had some guys that out played us in one on one situations, block out situations and let's not get lost in all of the team building and culture building stuff because it's okay to be selfish when it comes time to guard a guy and really try to get the best of them."
Team Stats
EWU
UTAH
FG%
.394
.517
3FG%
.185
.346
FT%
.667
.800
RB
31
40
TO
8
13
STL
9
5
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
24
FGM
11
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
4
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
G/F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's Basketball
F
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