Utah Runs Past Cal Bears, 77-43

Saturday, February 10

Salt Lake City, Utah

7:30 PM

University of Utah

15-9, 7-6

California

8-18, 2-11

California

Utah

2/10/2018 10:56 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Utah-Cal | Box Score (PDF)

Utes win fourth straight at home

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Runnin' Utes won for the fourth straight time inside the Huntsman Center, downing the California Golden Bears, 77-43, Saturday evening in Salt Lake City.

Utah moved to 15-9 overall and pushed its Pac-12 record above the .500 mark at 7-6. The Golden Bears, who were limited to a season-low scoring total on the season, fell to 8-18 overall and 2-11 in Pac-12 play.

Utah led 19-12 with less than 10 minutes to play in the half before a 5-0 Cal run pulled the Bears back to within three-points, down 19-16. The Utes countered though, outscoring the Bears 21-6 over the final nine minutes of the period to take a 40-24 lead into halftime.

Utah scored 16 of the first 23 points scored in the second and did not look back en route to the 34-point victory. Utah, who defeated Cal by almost the exact same score at home last season (77-44), has now defeated Cal by an average of 33.5 points in the last two meetings at the Huntsman Center.

David Collette finished with a game-high 18 points on 9-of-10 shooting and Justin Bibbins chipped in with 15 points for the Utes. Sedrick Barefield notched his second-straight double-digit scoring effort, pouring in 13 points with a 3-of-4 effort from three-point range.

The Utes are back on the road next week and return to the court at Washington, next Thursday, Feb. 15. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. PT at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

GAME NOTES
• With the win, Utah pushed its overall record back to .500 against the Bears, 15-15. The Utes have won four of the past six meetings and seven of the last 10 overall. Utah is 9-5 all-time when playing Cal in Salt Lake City.
• Head coach Larry Krystkowiak registered his 130^th win at Utah. He is 130-94 with the Utes and 172-114 overall in his collegiate coaching career.
• Collette and Bibbins both led the team with 12 points at the break. Collette finished with a team-high 18 points and Bibbins tallied 15 points in the game. Bibbins has now scored 10 points or more in 13 of his last 14 games.
• Collette was 6-of-6 in the first half. He had made 12 straight field goals dating back to the Stanford game. His first miss came at the 19:45 mark of the second half.
• Tyler Rawson tied a career-high, dishing out eight assists in the game. Utah totaled 24 assists as a team to Cal's seven assists. The Utes assisted on 24 of its 28 field goals on the evening. Utah matches its season-high with the 24-assist effort.
• Utah finished the evening knocking down 13 total three-pointers, which ranks tied for third most in a game this season. The Utes have drained at least 10 three-pointers in 12 games this season.
• Utah registered a season-high 54.9 shooting percentage. It is the highest single-game shooting percentage since totaling a

POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak

On staying aggressive …
It's just one game. I think we're really committed to playing defense. It feels good, feels like we're playing the game the right way. If we truly focus on getting stops, it's the cliché in sports. Pitching wins World Series'; Defense wins Super Bowls. We've had a couple of weeks playing zone, the guys are buying into it. Coach Hill is doing a great job on the defensive side of the ball, and it makes the game fun. We took some charges, took care of the glass, and the offense took care of itself. I'm a firm believer when you get stops in the game the other team doesn't guard you as well. It gives you some opportunities offensively.

On knocking down the three-ball …
We did such a good job sharing the ball. Ty had seven assists before the end of the half. We only had four turnovers in the first half. Cal's a team that's just behind Washington in terms of making you turn the ball over. I thought we took a few quick ones early, but once we settled in it became very unselfish. We had 15 field goals in the first half and 14 of them were assisted on. It was contagious, it seemed like whenever Ty got his hands on the ball good things happened. Guys did good job sharing the ball and good things happened.

On honoring the '98 team…
It was super cool. Back in 1998, I got an invitation to go to the Final Four, and it was actually the only one I've been at where I really cared. My former coach was at Stanford, and they were at that Final Four, but I got a chance to watch that Utah team. I remember walking through the arena and seeing all the Ute fans and thinking how cool it was that a team that wasn't a Kansas or Kentucky was actually there and living proof about how you can do it the old fashion way. I was a big fan of Coach Majerus, and it was really a neat deal to have them here.

California Head Coach Wyking Jones

On overall thoughts on the game …
We had no fight tonight. It sums it all up… we had no fight.

On coming to Utah following a tough Colorado loss …
It was very frustrating because like I said, we had no fight tonight and we did in Colorado. We had none tonight and we are going to need to figure out why that's the case.

On the offensive struggles …
We were not flowing at all. The pace wasn't what we were accustomed to and we just didn't have any energy.

On moving forward from here …
We don't play until Sunday so we have quite a few days to prepare for Stanford. We played them before so we just have to be ready to go back to battling, fighting, and competing the way I know we were before this game.