Runnin' Utes Down Colorado 64-54 on Senior Night

Saturday, March 3

Salt Lake City, Utah

5:00 PM

University of Utah

19-10, 11-7

Colorado

16-14, 8-10

Colorado

Utah

Photo by: Steve C. Wilson

Runnin' Utes Down Colorado 64-54 on Senior Night

3/3/2018 8:22 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Utah-Colorado | Box Score (PDF)

Bibbins leads senior game with 24 points

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah senior Justin Bibbins scored a game-high 24 points and the Utah Runnin' Utes won its final game of the regular season, downing the Colorado Buffaloes 64-54 Saturday evening at the Huntsman Center.

With the win, Utah finishes the regular season 19-10 overall and 11-7 in Pac-12 play, which is currently good for a tie for third place in the standings with Stanford. The Buffs fall to 16-14 overall and 8-10 in league play with the loss.

HOW THEY WON
Bibbins scored 14 of his game-high 24 points in the first half, knocking down 4-of-5 from downtown and giving the Utes a 41-24 lead at the break. Utah had scored just 10 points and drained just two field goals over the first 14 minutes of the first half, but then managed to score 13 more points down the stretch to earn the 10-point victory. Colorado, who trailed by as many as 18 points in the game, managed to get back within five points with less than two minutes to play, but Utah closed the final minute and a half with a 7-2 run.

STAT OF THE GAME
Utah knocked down 20 of 26 free throws in the game, while Colorado was just 7-of-11 overall. Utah has tallied at least 20 made free throws in six games this season.

WHO STOOD OUT
Bibbins was key for the Utes on senior night. The Carson, Calif., native was just one point away from tying his career-high. He finished the game 7-of-15 from the field, 6-of-11 from three-point range and 4-of-7 from the free throw line.

UP NEXT
With the win, Utah earns the No. 3 seed in next week's Pac-12 Tournament that will be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Utes earn a first-round bye in the championship event and will play the winner of the No. 6/11 seeded game on Thursday, Feb. 8. Tip-off will be at 8:30 p.m. PT.

A complete bracket and list of seeding's will be available at www.pac-12.com later this evening.

GAME NOTES
• Utah, who has won eight of the last 10 meetings, moved to 22-27 all-time against the Buffs. The Utes are now 14-8 all-time when facing Colorado in Salt Lake City. Tonight's victory marked six straight wins for the Utes over the Buffs at the Huntsman Center.
• Bibbins, who finished the game with 24 points, knocked down six three-pointers on the day to give him 80 three-pointers on the season. He is now tied with Nick Jacobson for sixth in single-season school history
• Utah, who finished the game with eight three-pointers, has now drained 266 total three-pointers on the season, which currently ranks 2nd all-time in single-season school history. The 2015-16 team owns the current school record with 273 three-pointers made.
• Sedrick Barefield scored 14 points in the game. He was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line becoming just the 14^th player in school history to shoot 1.000 percent from the free throw line with at least 10 attempts in a game.
• Donnie Tillman finished with 10 points – his first double-digit scoring effort since scoring 14 points against Washington back on Jan. 18.
• Utah's limited Colorado to just three three-pointers on Saturday. The Buffs were 3-of-11 from downtown in the first half, but the Utes held the visiting squad to zero (0-of-7) three's in the second haf.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak

On being without Collette for the majority of the game …
I never even thought about it until now, once you're in the foxhole trying to survive, I thought Chris and Jayce gave us enough rebounds and stops at the end. We had a shot blocking presence with Chris, he got his hands on quite a few. The scary part about the whole thing is that we haven't had Tyler the past two days due to the flu, we didn't know if he was even going to be available to play. So, things got a little lean but it was a terrific first half, I thought that it was a tale of two halves. Fortunately, we had guys like Sedrick and Justin step up and make some big plays, we finally got them to miss and got some rebounds. Shorthanded is good, we've got a bunch of guys that can play and we got them some reps. Heading into three games here to accomplish the next goal, we obviously need a bunch of guys, hopefully we'll get David back in the mix and get some guys healthy.

On getting the No. 3 seed in the Pac-12 tournament …
I've been talking about that for quite some time. Four or five weeks ago when the league was jumbled up, I said that we weren't going to stop shooting for that until somebody told me it was mathematically impossible. I was surprised when somebody said that Stanford won and if we won, we were guaranteed third. That was about the simplest solution that I have heard in any of the scenarios that could have happened.

On what Justin Bibbins meant tonight and the whole season as well …
Big time baskets. He didn't put us into a position where we were getting into the single possessions. It seemed like when it got close, he hit two big threes. Leadership, he's been doing that all year. He's gutty and grinds it out. It was terrific, heck of a way to have his senior night departure. Not sure where we would be without him.