Utah guard Brandon Taylor (Photo Rob Gray)
The Runnin’ Utes of Utah hammers Colorado 74-49 at the Huntsman center Wednesday night as the 9th ranked Utes easily handled the Buffs of Colorado. Colorado was the third PAC-12 team to go down by over 20 points and no PAC-12 opponent has scored over 50 points on the Utes as the Utes defense has blanketed the opponent giving Utah transition baskets on offense. With the win Utah’s record now goes to 13-2 and 3-0 Pac-12 play.
The first half was closer than it should have been as Utah and Colorado exchanged baskets and no team would establish a dominance. Utah had an opportunity to put the Buffaloes down while the Colorado stars were on the bench with fouls. Askia Booker and Josh Scott both had two fouls early and guard Xavier Johnson went out with a sprained ankle and he never returned.
Delon Wright (Photo Rob Gray)
Utah was led by Brandon Taylor who scored 14 points while Delon Wright added 13 points, six assists and four steals to help Utah win its sixth straight. Dakarai Tucker added 11 off the bench for the Utes. Jakob Poeltl had another good night on the boards for Utah as the freshman from Austria pulled down 8 rebounds in addition to his six points.
Colorado was led by Askia Booker with 12 points on 4 of 13 shooting. The biggest difference in the game occurred when Booker hit a shot in front of the Utah bench and turned to the bench saying something the infuriated Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak. Reports are it was a comment about how the Utes couldn’t guard him. After the comment Utah went on a big run and never looked back leading by as many as 35 points.
Next up for the Utes are their first two road games in PAC-12 play. The head to Arizona to take on Arizona first followed by top 10 opponent Arizona the Saturday after.