Runnin’ Utes Hold Off UCLA for Fifth Straight Win

Thursday, February 22

Salt Lake City, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

18-9, 10-6

UCLA

19-9, 10-6

UCLA

Utah

Photo by: Steve C. Wilson

Runnin’ Utes Hold Off UCLA for Fifth Straight Win

2/22/2018 10:54 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Utah-UCLA | Box Score (PDF)

Van Dyke scores career-high 18 points in home win

SALT LAKE CITY – Junior Parker Van Dyke scored a career-high 18 points, while leading the Utah Runnin' Utes to an 84-78 Pac-12 Conference victory over the UCLA Bruins, Thursday evening at the Huntsman Center.

Utah, who won for the fifth straight game, moved to 18-9 overall and 10-6 in the Pac-12 Conference standings. UCLA dropped to 19-9 overall and 10-6 in conference play. Both teams are currently tied for third-place in the league standings, behind first-place Arizona (12-3) and second-place USC (11-5).

HOW THEY WON
Utah erased an early seven-point deficit, shooting a season-high 64.3 percent from the field in the first half, to take a 47-40 lead into halftime. The Utes led by as many as 14 points early in the second half and then had to hold off a ferocious Bruin comeback, but capped off the win with a late three-pointer from Van Dyke and crucial free throws from both Justin Bibbins and Van Dyke with less than 10 seconds to play in the game.

Utah led by six points with 41 seconds left to play, up 78-72 following Van Dyke's three-pointer as the shot clock was winding down, but UCLA's Gyorgy Goloman drained a three-pointer to cut the lead to just three points with 35 seconds left on the clock. Bibbins drained both of his free throw attempts at the 22-second mark, but again UCLA knocked down a three-pointer – this time from Aaron Holiday – with 9.4 seconds left to play, making it an 80-78 lead for the Utes.

Bibbins was fouled on the ensuing inbounds play, but once more, the senior drained both attempts from the charity stripe to put the Utes up by four points, 82-78. With six seconds showing on the clock, Holiday's three-point attempt was off the mark and Utah secured the rebound. Van Dyke was fouled and he calmly drained both attempts to seal the win.

STAT OF THE GAME
Utah forced 13 UCLA turnovers and then turned those miscues into 17 points on the evening. UCLA finished the game scoring just two points off 10 Utah turnovers.

WHO STOOD OUT
Van Dyke scored a career-high 18 points, surpassing his previous career-high mark of 16 points that he tallied against Washington last season, back on Feb. 11, 2017. He finished the night 6-of-12 from the field, 4-of-10 from three-point range and was a perfect 2-of-2 from the free throw line.

David Collette scored a team-high 21 points on 9-of-9 shooting from the field and a 3-of-5 effort from the charity stripe. The senior has tallied an 87.5 field goal shooting percentage over the past five games, going 35-of-40 overall from the field.

Bibbins registered his third double-double of the season, scoring 17 points and dishing out 10 assists. This marks the second time that Bibbins has tallied a double-double with double-figure efforts in both scoring and assists.

UP NEXT
Utah wraps up its two-game home stand against both Los Angeles-based squads hosting the USC Trojans (20-9, 11-5) this Saturday, Feb. 24. Tip-off between the Utes and Trojans is set for 12:30 p.m. MT and the contest will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks.

GAME NOTES
• Utah snapped a two-game losing streak to the UCLA, while moving to 8-10 all-time against the Bruins. The Utes are now 4-3 all-time when facing the Bruins in Salt Lake City, which includes having won three of the past four meetings at the Huntsman Center.
• Utah shot 64.3 percent from the field in the first half, knocking down 18 of its 28 attempts. It marked Utah's best first half-shooting percentage all season, surpassing its 63.0 percent effort recorded against Eastern Washington earlier this season on Nov. 24, 2017.
• Utah had at least three players score in double figures for the 23^rd time this season. The Utes are now 17-6 overall when three players score 10+ points. It marked the 14^th time this season that Utah had at least four players notch double-digit scoring efforts.
• Utah finished the contest shooting 52.7 percent from the field (29-of-55). It is the eighth time overall this season that the Utes have recorded a shooting percentage of 50 percent or better. Utah has shot 50 percent or better in four of its current five-game winning streak.
• Collette's registered a 1.000 field goal shooting percentage for the fourth time this season. It marks the second time in his career that he has shot 100 percent from the field with at least eight attempts in the game. He became just the fourth different Ute to go 100 percent with at least nine attempts, matching Andre Miller (9-9, 1999), Hanno Mottola (10-10, 1997) and Jakob Poeltl (10-10, 2014.)
• Head coach Larry Krystkowiak registered career-win No. 175 on Thursday. He is 175-114 overall and 133-94 at the helm of the Utah men's basketball program.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak
Parker Van Dyke hitting the big shots down the stretch …
Well it was really cool, I mean I actually had a little flashback thinking of him as a little shaver coming to these games when he was just a little ankle biter and to be on a stage like that and in a point like that hitting two big threes was huge. We struggled the second half, we got really good shots I thought, but they weren't going in and you all felt the momentum shift where they got a really good player making plays Holiday getting guys open and making tough baskets. That kid is as solid of a point guard as there is in the country and he's and MVP kind of guy but I think the big thing was our free throws. When you look at that it is something that we aren't going to talk about a whole lot but for us to go 15-17 from the free throw line in a game of that magnitude making them turned out to be just what we needed.

What is says about the team being undefeated when leading with only five minutes left to go …
Well it was a close call, those guys were making some plays and I thought we got a couple key stops. David was terrific nine for nine from the field, he tweaked his ankle and wasn't feeling great and made a couple big baskets inside. Late for us I thought Ty was good, Justin with his line so I talked to about our team beforehand and I think the strength of our team is to use the wolf and the pack mentality. The strength of our pack is each individual wolf being able to play for each other and then the strength of each wolf is the pack. The first half was an awesome display offensively and defensively being connected and then the second half it is hard when you miss that many shots consecutively to fight that momentum but I thought we got enough stops. You certainly want to have those types of numbers and I wasn't aware but when you are ahead of games and to be able to close is super important and I think some of what can be explained is we've got four seniors out there that have had some reps under their belt and in college basketball often times you get young kids in this era that are first second year players that are likely to make a few more mistakes so some of the veteran leadership I think is key and making sure we aren't throwing the ball away and giving our self a chance.

UCLA head coach Steve Alford
On falling behind 14 points …
We had a tough stretch in the first half where we didn't defend very well. We got into some foul trouble and were trying to figure some things out. I thought Aaron [Holiday] goes 40 minutes and two free throws, and that's a tough one for us, especially how much he has the ball and how he draws a lot of attention, and in my opinion, draws a lot of contact. It was a tough one. We just didn't defend in the first half like we have to defend. I thought we were better defensively in the second half and offensively, I liked how we attacked their zone. I thought we got good looks and I thought we did a good job in a lot of different areas. We just had a stretch in the first half where we weren't very good defensively.

On why the defense was struggling …
I have no idea. They were hot. They shot 67 percent in the first half, so you have to give them a lot of credit. They made a lot of shots. Collette was 9-9, I think, and Van Dyke was 6-12 overall. We just let a couple of guys get away from us and we just can't defend that way. I think this has been a team that for 30 to 32 minutes has proved that they can really defend, but what they have to grow and mature into is a team that can prove they can do it for 40 and we don't always do that. We got beat on the dribble-drive and we got beat in the post. I think at halftime it was 18-8 in the paint and that's absurd. We need to win the paint game and we did not win the paint game tonight.