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BOULDER, Colo. — An abysmal shooting day yielded a season-low point total for the Runnin' Utes (3-10) in their 73-33 loss to Colorado (9-4) in the first-ever Pac-12 conference game for both teams.
Freshman guard Spencer Dinwiddie led the Buffaloes in scoring with a career-high 19 points, and sophomore guard Andre Roberson added 17 points to go with 17 boards in the blowout victory. Freshman guard Askia Booker also scored 14 points for Colorado.
"Embarrassing is a good word for it," Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak said of the loss. "We got manhandled in all elements of game. Mentally we weren't engaged for whatever reason. There was some initial stuff we had in the game plan from the very first 3-point shot, guys aren't locked in and its very disturbing at this point."
Former Ute Carlon Brown, who downplayed the personal significance of the game this week, also scored double figures against his old team. The senior guard scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting with three rebounds.
Colorado outrebounded Utah, 44-23, and racked up 15 assists to Utah's seven. The Buffaloes hit 48 percent from the field, including 48 percent from beyond the arc (12- of-25).
Junior center Jason Washburn was Utah's only player to score in double figures with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting with seven rebounds, and junior forward Dijon Farr scored seven points in the losing effort.
Senior guard Josh Watkins, who came into the contest as the second-leading scorer in the Pac-12, had a rough outing, scoring just four points on 1-of-12 from the field, including 0-for-5 from 3-point range. Colorado was focused on shutting Watkins down, and did a noteworthy job in doing so.
The Utes had a hard time getting the ball to go in the basket, going long stretches without a score.
Almost five minutes went by before freshman guard Anthony Odunsi's layup finally put the Utes on the board. Farr's 3-pointer made it 8-5, and then Utah proceeded to go another four minutes without scoring a point.
After Farr scored a layup with 9:52 remaining in the half to make it 14-7, Utah once again went four more minutes without a bucket. The team then closed the last 4:42 of the half without a score, and went into the locker room down 27-11.
The 11-point half was the lowest for the Utes since 1990, and their 20-percent, first-half field-goal percentage was the second-lowest in school history.
Utah managed to double its scoring output in the second half, but Colorado also increased its offense by scoring 46 second half points—13 more than the Utes put up in the entire game.
The Utes came out playing hard defensively, and managed to limit Colorado in the first half, but their horrific lack of production on offense virtually negated any defensive success.
"At halftime we had been outscored by one player 16-11, but we still held them to 27 points," Krystkowiak said. "We missed a lot of open shots initially. Offensively, they took a lot of stuff away that we wanted to do and we didn't make a lot of plays. That makes the game hard. It puts a lot of pressure on your defense. If you told me before the game you will hold them to 27 at half,would you like that?' I would say 'absolutely.' Defensively we hung in there, but you put so much heat on your defense by doing that, the second half just killed us."
I'm really disappointed with how we started (Pac-12 play) but there are 17 of them left. We don't get a re-try. It's a big lesson learned for a lot of guys. Now we have to get charged up, open up play at our place on Thursday and hopefully we will have a good enough week to put it behind us.
–Larry Krystkowiak
The Utes' 33 points were the lowest total the program has scored since 1980, and the fewest ever scored in a game at the Coors Events Center. The 40-point margin of defeat was the fourth-largest in Utah history.
Utah shot just 22.8 percentage from the field on the day, the fourth-lowest in team history, and its 12 field goals made was tied for the lowest mark in school history. In addition, the team only made 8.7 percent of its 3-point attempts on 2-of-23 from beyond the arc.
After snagging two mid-December wins, the Utes have lost the last two match-ups by a combined 69 points.
Krystkowiak knows his team just has to take its lumps and learn from them.
"We have to move on," he said. "I'm really disappointed with how we started (Pac-12 play) but there are 17 of them left. We don't get a re-try. It's a big lesson learned for a lot of guys. Now we have to get charged up, open up play at our place on Thursday and hopefully we will have a good enough week to put it behind us."
Utah will have five days to regroup before hosting Washington State Thursday in its first-ever Pac-12 home game.
