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Pay no consideration to that dropping report, the historic 10-game dropping streak that lined your complete month of January or the truth that the Utah Runnin’ Utes have frolicked within the cellar of the Pac-12 males’s basketball standings for a very good chunk of the season.
This may very well be a harmful group come March, first-year coach Craig Smith has stated for the previous couple of weeks now, and on Saturday afternoon within the Bay Space, the Utes proved their coach to be right.
Utah accomplished a Pac-12 highway sweep for the primary time since February of 2019, beating the pesky Cal Bears 60-58 in Berkeley, California, on Saturday.
The victory got here two days after Utah upset Stanford 60-56 throughout the bay.
Instantly, Utah (11-16, 4-13) is the group no one needs to see on the Pac-12 match in Las Vegas subsequent month.
Heck, the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats, who had been awarded a No. 1 seed for the Massive Dance when the primary bracket reveal was introduced Saturday, may even should be involved a bit of bit for subsequent Thursday’s recreation on the Huntsman Middle.
Utah is enjoying that nicely — at the least on protection.
“I simply really feel like each week we have now incrementally gotten a bit of bit higher,” Smith stated. “Our guys have flipped the script in an effective way.”
Whereas selecting up their fourth convention win, the Utes may simply have misplaced a key part to their mid-February upswing, nevertheless.
Star middle Branden Carlson rolled his ankle with three minutes, 33 seconds remaining towards the Bears and didn't return.
That Utah led 55-51 on the time and was in a position to dangle on down the stretch with out their greatest participant is a testomony to studying from all these rising pains in December and January.
Senior Riley Battin entered and made two large performs within the ultimate couple of minutes, pulling down a shot within the paint after which forcing Cal’s Jordan Shepherd — extra on him later — to commit a turnover on the opposite finish.
“Riley didn’t get a ton of time, however he stepped in there when Carlson acquired harm and made a giant basket there to get us again as much as six-point lead and was very, very sound for us,” Smith stated.
“So we discovered a approach to get it performed.”
Smith didn’t have a particular replace on Carlson’s damage or situation in his postgame remarks to the media.
He did say the “silver lining” to the damage is that Carlson returned the subsequent recreation after spraining his ankle towards USC on Dec. 1.
“I've coached a whole lot of good gamers who've had ankle accidents, they usually know how you can negotiate it, they know how you can deal with it and handle it,” Smith stated.
“So I hope that that's what the top prognosis is, however I don’t have any concrete info.”
California fell to 11-17 and 4-13 with the loss, having been swept at dwelling this weekend by the mountain colleges.
Utah defeated the Bears 66-58 in Salt Lake Metropolis on Dec. 5, and this recreation was eerily related, till it wasn’t.
Utah led for greater than 32 minutes and by as many as 12 factors early within the second half, however Cal stored coming.
The Utes went greater than six minutes and not using a subject purpose within the second half till Carlson stopped the bleeding with an inside bucket.
He had eight factors and 5 rebounds earlier than the ankle damage.
Cal’s Kuany Kuany, a junior, hit two free throws with 19 seconds remaining to chop Utah’s result in two.
Nevertheless, Utah freshman Lazar Stefanovic made a pair of freebies with 11.6 seconds left.
Marco Anthony made a free throw with 4.3 seconds left to push Utah’s result in two. Shepherd launched a decent-chance 3-pointer from about 35 toes to beat the buzzer, nevertheless it was extensive and the Utes had the sweep.
“Marco was on him, and I used to be kinda within the hole. When he shot it, I simply turned and hoped it didn’t go in,” Rollie Worster stated.
“I had a bizarre angle, so I didn’t know the trajectory of the ball. We're simply completely satisfied it missed.”
Shepherd entered the sport with a 14.3 scoring common however was held down by Anthony, who complemented his excellent defensive recreation with one other stable offensive recreation: 13 factors, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
“That’s simply the best way I really feel like I play protection,” Anthony stated. “I take a whole lot of delight at that finish, and (Shepherd’s) a very good participant, and I used to be glad that that helped us win this recreation.”
Junior Lars Thiemann led the Bears with 16 factors and eight rebounds, each profession highs. Jalen Celestine, who hit a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds left to get Cal inside some extent, added 10.
“It feels wonderful,” Anthony stated of the win. “We now have been on the opposite aspect of the curler coaster these previous few weeks, however we actually felt we had been heading in the right direction and at last acquired over that hump and acquired the sweep right here in Cali.”
The Utes fell behind 7-2 early, then merely started overwhelming the Bears, who had received two of their final three video games.
Anthony sparked an 11-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Gabe Madsen, and had 10 factors within the first half, another than his season common.
Lahat Thioune gave the Utes a elevate off the bench with six first-half factors, and Utah’s bench outscored Cal’s bench 15-0 within the first half, 21-10 within the recreation.
Credit score Cal, which has a NET rating of 135, for not folding after trailing 32-24 at halftime. Utah held the Bears to 39% taking pictures, together with 3 of 16 from 3-point vary.
“It was a very good win for the Utes,” Smith stated. “It was a grinder in each approach, form and type, and also you may characterize it as a root canal at occasions, particularly within the second half.”
Smith stated Utah’s improved play of late is because of three major causes: Sticking collectively, digging in on the defensive finish and never turning the ball over as a lot as they had been in January.
Additionally, having Carlson again within the lineup after a Jan. 8 appendectomy has made an enormous distinction.
“We now have grown collectively to get the wins, however I feel we have now been rising collectively for fairly someday now,” Smith stated. “
I'd say it actually sort of began the week going into Arizona (an 82-64 loss on Jan. 15). We ended up dropping that recreation, however I assumed we performed very nicely, fairly nicely for 28 minutes or so.”
If the Utes can put collectively 40 minutes or so on Thursday, they’ve acquired a shot. They’ve already confirmed they'll’t be taken frivolously in March.