SALT LAKE CITY – A well balanced attack Saturday night saw the Utah men's basketball team close out its three-game homestand with a 73-62 victory over Colorado inside the Jon M. Huntsman Center.
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Utah's win moved it to 17-9 overall and 10-5 in Pac-12 play. The 10 league victories compared to last season's four is the largest margin of increase year-over-year in conference play since Utah went from eight wins in 1993-94 to 15 wins in 1994-95.
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Branden Carlson got things going for Utah as the Utes opened with a 7-0 run and followed with 14-3 run after Colorado tied things up at 7-7. Utah did its best to extend the double-digit lead but the Buffs answered each time to bring it back down to single-digits.
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After
Wilguens Jr. Exacte's triple pushed Utah's lead back up to 36-26, Colorado answered right back and finished the final 2:35 on a 6-2 run. However, the Utes were able to head into the locker room on top 38-32 thanks to five different players knocking down a three.
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Utah's offense was locked in out of the gates in the second stanza and capped off a 12-4 run with a 3-pointer from
Ben Carlson to go up 50-36. The Buffs (14-12, 6-9 Pac-12) once again tried to cut the Utah lead back to single-digits and got as close as 54-44 before the Utes responded with an 8-0 run to push things back up to 62-44 at the 8:00 media break.
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Neither team shot the ball well in the final five minutes of play with Utah and Colorado combining to go just 3-of-16 from the field. However, that worked out in Utah's favor as it held on for the 73-62 victory over Colorado.
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Br. Carlson and
Marco Anthony finished with a game-high 17 points apiece. Br. Carlson added four boards, three assists and three blocks while Anthony pulled down eight boards to go with his season-high in points.
Ben Carlson finished with 10 points and eight rebounds of his own, recording double-digit points in back-to-back games for the first time this season.
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BY THE NUMBERS
With the win, Utah moves to 10-5 in Pac-12 play and reaches double-digit wins in league play for the first time since 2018-19 (11-7) … Utah outrebounded Colorado 41-29 … Utah is now 14-2 when holding opponents under 40-percent shooting after Colorado finished the game shooting .371 as a team … Saturday marked the first time Utah has committed double-digit turnovers in four games.
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UP NEXT
After completing its three-game homestand, Utah now hits the road next week starting with #4/4 Arizona on Thursday, Feb. 16, for an 8 p.m. (MT) tip-off with Roxy Bernstein and Bill Walton on the call before heading to the Valley of the Sun to take on Arizona State at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18. Both contests are scheduled to broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.
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For the latest news and information on the Runnin' Utes men's basketball program, fans can stay connected online at
www.UtahUtes.com and on social media by following @UtahMBB on
Facebook,
Twitter and
Instagram.
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