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SALT LAKE CITY -- On Wednesday night, the University of Utah men's basketball team beat Air Force on the road, putting themselves in a tie with Colorado State for fifth place in the Mountain West Conference standings. On Saturday the Utes will have a chance to break the fifth place tie and take revenge on a Wyoming team that beat them in Laramie earlier this season.
The loss on Jan. 27 came after a failed attempt to rally from behind. The Cowboys who went on to win 75-69. Carlon Brown had a career-night scoring 31 points and grabbing four rebounds, but in the end it wasn't good enough. Wyoming's Desmar Jackson lead the Cowboys in scoring with 21 points, but three other Wyoming players ended up scoring in double-digits to help send the Runnin' Utes home without a win.
Marshall Henderson scored 13 and Jay Watkins scored 12 in Utah's losing effort, but Wyoming's Adam Waddell was a difference maker scoring 13 points and grabbing a monstrous 22 rebounds.
The Utes head into Saturday night's match-up coming off a win against Air Force, while the Cowboys enter the contest losers of their last seven games. The last game Wyoming won was on Jan 27 when they knocked off Utah, who in the same stretch is 3-4. While the Utes are fighting for better playoff position the Cowboys are just trying not to sink below Air Force to the bottom of the MWC standings.
The Cowboys woes started on Jan. 20 when their leading scorer Afam Muojeke ruptured his patellar tendon in his left knee during the first half of their game at BYU and is now out of the rest of the season. Muojeke averaged 16.8 points before his injury. In Wyoming's next game they beat Utah before heading into a tailspin and losing their next seven.
The Utes are 8-7 in games that are played at the Huntsman Center this season. The home crowd on a Saturday afternoon should be nice after a two game road trip, which they split, 1-1. This is the second to last home game for the Utes who will face BYU next Wednesday night up on the hill.
Freshman sharpshooter Marshall Henderson has been the go to guy for Utah as of late. Henderson leads the team in scoring against conference opponents this season chipping in an average of 15 points per contest. Senior signal Luka Drca has been a constant in the Utah's backcourt by averaging 3.4 helpers per game and playing outstanding defense. Slashing Junior guard Carlon Brown has been a difference maker for the Utes back court averaging just over 13 points a game. Brown will hope to duplicate his success from the last match-up with Wyoming where he scored a career-high 31 points.
Senior power forward Kim Tillie has been working his way back into the rotation with tremendous hustle in the last few games. Tillie started a majority of the games early in the season before going down with a knee injury. Since his return Tillie has seen limited minutes off of the bench, but Tillie has played valuable minutes for the Utes and has been a defensive difference maker in recent contest. David Foster the 7'3" Sophomore center leads the the team, conference and is fourth in the NCAA with 4.2 blocks per game. In the last match-up with the Cowboys Foster blocked three shots.
A.J. Davis, Desmar Jackson and Adam Waddell all average ten points for Wyoming and are the three big scoring threats for the Cowboys. JayDee Luster is the leading assist man dishing out an average of 4.5 assists per game. Waddell is the leader on the boards for the Polks grabbing 6.2 rebounds a game in conference play.
The University of Utah will be celebrating the Huntsman Center's 40th anniversary with a 70's night. The game is slated to tip of at 4:00pm MT.
TV: The Mtn.
Radio: KALL 700
Tickets:Click here
