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Friday, November 23
Fullerton, Calif.
7:00 PM
University of Utah
3-2
75
vs
66
Grand Canyon
3-3
1
2
F
Grand Canyon
29
37
66
Utah
35
40
75
Barefield's 26 Points Lead Utes in Bounce-Back Game
11/23/2018 11:17 PM | Men's Basketball
Utah downs GCU in Wooden Legacy on Friday
FULLERTON, Calif. – Senior Sedrick Barefield scored 18 of his season-high 26 points in the second half to lead the Utah Runnin' Utes (3-3) to a 75-66 win over the Grand Canyon Lopes (3-2) in the second round of the Wooden Legacy Friday evening at Titan Gym.
With the win, Utah now moves on to the fifth-place game of the bracket and will face the Northwestern Wildcats (4-1) on Sunday. The Utes and Wildcats will tip-off against each other on Sunday, Nov. 25, at 11 a.m. PT and the contest will be aired live on ESPNU/WatchESPN.
GAME SUMMARY
Utah, who led wire-to-wire and came away with the nine-point victory, outshot the Lopes, .500 (24-48) to .432 (19-44) overall in the game. The Utes jumped out to an early 24-8 lead in the first half, and despite GCU cutting the deficit to just one point (48-47) with 9:52 left to play in the second period, Barefield put the team on this back and knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to give the Utes enough separation and later pull away.
GCU was limited to just 2-of-13 through the first 11 minutes of the contest, but then closed the first half making six of its final seven shots and Utah's lead was 35-29 at the break. GCU opened the second half outscoring the Utes 8-4 to pull within two points (39-37), but sophomore Donnie Tillman drained a three-pointer and senior Novack Topalovic chipped in with a dunk to put the lead back up to seven points (44-37).
Up by just the one point with less than 10 minutes to play, Barefield drained his pair of three-pointers and freshman Riley Battin poured in four straight points. Barefield, who wasn't done, knocked down another trey and later converted a four-point play with a three-pointer and a free throw after being fouled to push the score to 67-55. GCU got back to within single digits, down 69-60 with less than a minute to play, but freshman Both Gach converted all four his final free throw attempts to put the game on ice.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Barefield scored a season-high 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting overall and knocking down four of his eight three-point attempts. He was 4-of-5 from the free throw line and dished out three of Utahs' 12 assists on the evening. It marked Barefield's highest point total since scoring 26 points against Arizona last season, back on Jan. 27, 2018.
Tillman scored 14 points (5-of-7) and Gach chipped in with eight points. He was just 1-of-2 from the field, but was clutch at the free throw line knocking down a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe on the evening. Battin was the fourth Ute to score in double figures, notching 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting overall.
GAME NOTES
· Utah is playing in its fourth ESPN event (5-6 record in those).
· Utah shot 50% FG tonight (24-48 FG), and the Utes are now 71-11 (87%) since the start of the 2012-13 season when making 50% or more of its shots.
· Sedrick Barefield rebounded from his consecutive games of four points with a 26-point effort, with 18 of those coming after halftime… That tied for his second highest scoring performance in his career, and seventh time eclipsing 20 points (Utah 2-5 in those).
· Donnie Tillman scored 14 points, and the Utes moved to 11-4 when he scores 10+ points.
· Freshman Riley Battin had his second straight double-figure scoring game, netting 10 points off the bench.
· Freshman Both Gach also had his second straight double-figure scoring game, scoring 10 points in his first collegiate start.
GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
Opening Statement:
"I think that's the epitome of sports right there. We got knocked to the mat last night and it was really disappointing. It can go one of two ways and one of the great things about tournaments like this is you get a chance to see what you are made of. I think we played as hard as we've played all year. We really played connected basketball, we shared the ball, we made some big shots. It was a lot of fun and winning was good medicine. That's a good Grand Canyon team and I told Dan Majerle they can win their league. They have a lot of positive things happening there and it's a good win for us."
On switching to zone defense:
"That was our defensive coordinator Andy Hill, he's the coach of the game. I'm not sure what he saw in that situation but with 9:22 left he said to switch to a zone. We had a hard time guarding them in the post, we kept sending them to the foul line and we thought that zone would maybe take them out of that punch process. I thought we did a nice job. It was a big change in the complexion of the game. Sometimes it takes a different pitch and got them out of their rhythm a little bit."
Forward Donnie Tillman, Utah
On bouncing back from defeat to Hawai'i:
"To hear from coach is always good but the leaders of the team like Sedrick (Barefield) and Charles Jones, he got player of the game, he told us to talk, communicate, be energetic and have fun. I took that to heart and I took it on myself to just be yelling every possession even if it was nonsense it will get us going, especially defensively. Coach talks about blue zones and red zones and defensively we're in the blue zone too much. We have to be aggressive."
Coach Dan Majerle, Grand Canyon
On his team's performance:
"We're just disappointed. We came out a little flat for whatever reason we couldn't shoot it. Defensively we were really bad. Utah was good and we did a bad job so we dug ourselves a hole so we decided to starter working a little harder, guard a little better and we fought our way back into it. But, Utah played well. [Sedrick] Barefield had a heck of a game, he made a lot of nice shots especially at the end of the buzzer on a lot of them. I give all the credit to Utah, they bounced back from a tough game last night so they came out to play."
On Sedrick Barefield's play:
"Just his poise. We knew he was a good player. He can attack, he can get to the basket, pull up, shoot jump shots. It just seems like some backcourt guy is going to have a nice game against us every night. The other night it was [Myles] Powell who had 40. That's what we have a hard time guarding right now and he [Barefield] is the guy that hurt us tonight. He's a good player and we knew that coming in and he took advantage of us."
On how his team can expand their offense:
"Well, it's not going to help us if the rest of our offense doesn't shoot well. Right now our offense is "Throw it to Ale[ssandro] and hope he gets hot, pop him one for a three-pointer and hope he makes a few" We've got to have guys who can shoot a little bit better, who can penetrate and kick. Alessandro is a terrific player he has been all of last year and he's starting to play better now so it's good for him. But, we have to get guys around him to support him because he's going to start getting double-teamed and we can't rely on him to have good nights every night."
With the win, Utah now moves on to the fifth-place game of the bracket and will face the Northwestern Wildcats (4-1) on Sunday. The Utes and Wildcats will tip-off against each other on Sunday, Nov. 25, at 11 a.m. PT and the contest will be aired live on ESPNU/WatchESPN.
GAME SUMMARY
Utah, who led wire-to-wire and came away with the nine-point victory, outshot the Lopes, .500 (24-48) to .432 (19-44) overall in the game. The Utes jumped out to an early 24-8 lead in the first half, and despite GCU cutting the deficit to just one point (48-47) with 9:52 left to play in the second period, Barefield put the team on this back and knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to give the Utes enough separation and later pull away.
GCU was limited to just 2-of-13 through the first 11 minutes of the contest, but then closed the first half making six of its final seven shots and Utah's lead was 35-29 at the break. GCU opened the second half outscoring the Utes 8-4 to pull within two points (39-37), but sophomore Donnie Tillman drained a three-pointer and senior Novack Topalovic chipped in with a dunk to put the lead back up to seven points (44-37).
Up by just the one point with less than 10 minutes to play, Barefield drained his pair of three-pointers and freshman Riley Battin poured in four straight points. Barefield, who wasn't done, knocked down another trey and later converted a four-point play with a three-pointer and a free throw after being fouled to push the score to 67-55. GCU got back to within single digits, down 69-60 with less than a minute to play, but freshman Both Gach converted all four his final free throw attempts to put the game on ice.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Barefield scored a season-high 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting overall and knocking down four of his eight three-point attempts. He was 4-of-5 from the free throw line and dished out three of Utahs' 12 assists on the evening. It marked Barefield's highest point total since scoring 26 points against Arizona last season, back on Jan. 27, 2018.
Tillman scored 14 points (5-of-7) and Gach chipped in with eight points. He was just 1-of-2 from the field, but was clutch at the free throw line knocking down a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe on the evening. Battin was the fourth Ute to score in double figures, notching 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting overall.
GAME NOTES
· Utah is playing in its fourth ESPN event (5-6 record in those).
· Utah shot 50% FG tonight (24-48 FG), and the Utes are now 71-11 (87%) since the start of the 2012-13 season when making 50% or more of its shots.
· Sedrick Barefield rebounded from his consecutive games of four points with a 26-point effort, with 18 of those coming after halftime… That tied for his second highest scoring performance in his career, and seventh time eclipsing 20 points (Utah 2-5 in those).
· Donnie Tillman scored 14 points, and the Utes moved to 11-4 when he scores 10+ points.
· Freshman Riley Battin had his second straight double-figure scoring game, netting 10 points off the bench.
· Freshman Both Gach also had his second straight double-figure scoring game, scoring 10 points in his first collegiate start.
GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
Opening Statement:
"I think that's the epitome of sports right there. We got knocked to the mat last night and it was really disappointing. It can go one of two ways and one of the great things about tournaments like this is you get a chance to see what you are made of. I think we played as hard as we've played all year. We really played connected basketball, we shared the ball, we made some big shots. It was a lot of fun and winning was good medicine. That's a good Grand Canyon team and I told Dan Majerle they can win their league. They have a lot of positive things happening there and it's a good win for us."
On switching to zone defense:
"That was our defensive coordinator Andy Hill, he's the coach of the game. I'm not sure what he saw in that situation but with 9:22 left he said to switch to a zone. We had a hard time guarding them in the post, we kept sending them to the foul line and we thought that zone would maybe take them out of that punch process. I thought we did a nice job. It was a big change in the complexion of the game. Sometimes it takes a different pitch and got them out of their rhythm a little bit."
Forward Donnie Tillman, Utah
On bouncing back from defeat to Hawai'i:
"To hear from coach is always good but the leaders of the team like Sedrick (Barefield) and Charles Jones, he got player of the game, he told us to talk, communicate, be energetic and have fun. I took that to heart and I took it on myself to just be yelling every possession even if it was nonsense it will get us going, especially defensively. Coach talks about blue zones and red zones and defensively we're in the blue zone too much. We have to be aggressive."
Coach Dan Majerle, Grand Canyon
On his team's performance:
"We're just disappointed. We came out a little flat for whatever reason we couldn't shoot it. Defensively we were really bad. Utah was good and we did a bad job so we dug ourselves a hole so we decided to starter working a little harder, guard a little better and we fought our way back into it. But, Utah played well. [Sedrick] Barefield had a heck of a game, he made a lot of nice shots especially at the end of the buzzer on a lot of them. I give all the credit to Utah, they bounced back from a tough game last night so they came out to play."
On Sedrick Barefield's play:
"Just his poise. We knew he was a good player. He can attack, he can get to the basket, pull up, shoot jump shots. It just seems like some backcourt guy is going to have a nice game against us every night. The other night it was [Myles] Powell who had 40. That's what we have a hard time guarding right now and he [Barefield] is the guy that hurt us tonight. He's a good player and we knew that coming in and he took advantage of us."
On how his team can expand their offense:
"Well, it's not going to help us if the rest of our offense doesn't shoot well. Right now our offense is "Throw it to Ale[ssandro] and hope he gets hot, pop him one for a three-pointer and hope he makes a few" We've got to have guys who can shoot a little bit better, who can penetrate and kick. Alessandro is a terrific player he has been all of last year and he's starting to play better now so it's good for him. But, we have to get guys around him to support him because he's going to start getting double-teamed and we can't rely on him to have good nights every night."
Team Stats
GCU
UTAH
FG%
.432
.500
3FG%
.375
.400
FT%
.731
.864
RB
24
31
TO
14
13
STL
2
3
Game Leaders
Pts
26
FGM
9
3FGM
4
FTM
4
Pts
14
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G
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