Bibbins and Barefield Lead Runnin' Utes Past Cardinal, 75-60

Thursday, February 8

Salt Lake City, Utah

6:00 PM

University of Utah

14-9, 6-6

Stanford

13-12, 7-5

Stanford

Utah

Photo by: Steve C. Wilson

Bibbins and Barefield Lead Runnin' Utes Past Cardinal, 75-60

2/8/2018 9:33 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Utah-Stanford | Box Score (PDF)

Bibbins notches game-high 18 points; Barefield chips in with 17

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah's Justin Bibbins scored a game-high 18 points and the Utah Runnin' Utes managed to snap a two-game losing streak, downing the Stanford Cardinal 75-60 Thursday evening at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

Sedrick Barefield scored 17 points and David Collette chipped in with 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting as Utah improved to 14-9 overall and 6-6 in Pac-12 play. The Cardinal, who were coming off a 30-plus point win over Oregon this past weekend, fell to 13-12 overall and 7-5 in the conference standings.

Utah saw its seven-point lead dwindle down to just a point, a little more than midway through the first half, but the Ute defense clamped down and limited the Cardinal to just one field goal over the final 8:45 of the period. A 14-3 run would push Utah's lead to 36-22 and the Utes would later take a 12-point lead into the locker room, up 40-28.

Utah shot 55 percent from the field, while limiting Stanford to just a 31 percent effort. The Utes doubled-up the Cardinal in field goals made, draining 16 through the first 20 minutes. Stanford closed the period with just eight field goals made.

Gabe Bealer opened the second half with back-to-back three-pointers and Utah led by as many as 23 points with less than 10 minutes to play. Stanford chipped away at the lead late in the game, but the Utes still managed to outscore the Cardinal 35-32 in the second half on the way to the 15-point victory.

Utah finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field, knocking down 28-of-56 shots on the night. It was the first time the Utes finished a game shooting at least 50 percent from the field since registering a 51 percent effort against Utah State back earlier this season on Dec. 9.

The Utes will wrap-up this week's action against the Bay Area teams hosting the California Golden Bears this Saturday, Feb. 10. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. MT inside the Huntsman Center.

GAME NOTES
• Utah tallied a second straight win over Stanford, while improving to 20-13 all-time against the Cardinal. It marks the first two-game winning streak over Stanford since sweeping the 2015 season series.
• Bibbins scored in double figures for the 12^th time in his past 13 games. He was 7-of-9 from the field overall, with a 4-of-4 effort from beyond the three-point line. He has led the Utes in scoring nine times on the season.
• Collette posted a double-digit scoring effort for the 16^th time this season. He continues to inch closer to the 1,000 career-points mark with 969 points (combined at Utah State and Utah).
• Tyler Rawson led the way on the boards, registering 10 rebounds for the third time this season. He also led the team with five assists.
• Utah dished out 16 assists and turned the ball over just six times in the game for a +10 assist to turnover ratio. It is tied for the second-best ratio of the season, matching the +10 effort against Oregon back on Dec. 29. The Utes notched a +12 ratio (22-10) against Washington State on Jan. 21.
• Collette and Jayce Johnson both tied career highs with three blocks each. Utah finished the game with a season-high 10 blocks overall. It is the first time that Utah has tallied at least 10 blocks in a game since totaling 10 blocked shots against Idaho State back on Nov. 27, 2015.

POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
On bouncing back from Colorado…
I spoke of it last Friday, but that was when we lost Jon. I got a text at about 2 p.m. in the afternoon and that set me back. I'll be first and foremost to say I wasn't a very good coach last Friday. I think our players struggled a little bit; we took a step back in terms of sharing the ball. We always talk about playing hard, playing smart, and playing together. We had some of those components on the defensive end at Colorado, but we didn't do it offensively. We didn't share, didn't execute, didn't screen, missed a bunch of layups. Believe it or not you can be soft on offense and I thought we were. Our zone was really good tonight, we did a nice job. Ten blocked shots might be a season high. Our assist to turnover ratio was off the charts, we were sharing the ball – 16 assists to 6 turnovers. I really thought we just guarded them. I said to our team, if you focus on playing defense, it's a crazy thing in basketball but there's a correlation that if you play good defense sometimes they don't guard you as hard. I said pregame let's not worry too much about the offense, lets really hang our head on getting some stops.

On paying tribute to Jon Huntsman…
It's more of a one game deal for us. This season is dedicated to him, and beyond that for me personally, I've said it to a handful of people and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I've been around 53 years, I've looked up to a lot of people, and I've been fortunate enough to meet a lot of people. I told Jon that in one of my last texts to him was that I don't know if there's anyone who's had more of an impact on me in seven short years. He's just a person I want to be like, in terms of how he was humble, he was an unbelievable business man, he was driven, he had vision for the cancer center, I mean first and foremost how he took me and my family under his wing here. He and I had many private lunches up here, and it was one of my highlights. I know he's not here physically, but this is the House that Jon Built, and we're going to try and pass a lot of those positive traits forward. I'm going to try and live a better life. There's just not a lot of many people on the planet who've done what he's done.

On playing a complete game…
We've had some moments. That was very solid. I think we got a boost playing at home, I think some elevation came into play for Stanford. But it was solid all the way around. The only thing I look at on the stat sheet that was disheartening was the rebounding still, and we haven't hit it out of the park in the rebounding stats. I'd like to be able to control the defensive glass a little bit and not give them as many opportunities, but a lot of the other facets of the game I thought was very positive. You know Stanford is a good team, they're playing well, they're back to full strength, and have been clicking. We needed this one.