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Show SPORTS Friday, February 2,2007 Page 6 No home away from home The loneliest number Utes try to solve road woes against TCU Ute women lose first MWCgame by one point During a valiant second half, Warburton willed her team The Daily Utah Chronicle to within one point when she Despite Morgan Warbur- nailed a three-pointer—her ton's career-high 26-point sixth of the night—with 19 seceffort, the Wyoming Cow- onds remaining in the game. girls—which had previously Warburton had a chance to dropped 30 straight games to tie the score on a drive to the Utah—slipped by the Utes by a hoop with seconds remaining single point Thursday night in but missed—and the referees, Laramie, ruining the Utes' per- not surprisingly, choked on fect league record and extend- their whistles. Utah got to the ing Wyoming's home winning line just six times in the game streak to nine straight games. compared to 24 for Wyoming. Sophomore guard Warbur- Finally, with 13:25 to go1 in the ton single-handedly kept the second half, the Utes Brette Utes within striking distance, Ulsaker made Utah's first deeven as they fell into a 12-point but at the charity stripe. halftime chasm. "We're used to getting to the The Utes found themselves free-throw line/' U head coach facing a 7-0 deficit early in the Elaine Elliott said. "We went to game and never regained the the rim hard and didn't get the lead, falling to Wyoming by a calls we needed to get." single gut-wrenching point. The game ended in a freeNatalie Dicou LENNIE M AHLER/Tin-Darfv Utah Chronicle Kalee Whipple knocks a rebound away from BYU's Lauren Riley Saturday. Thursday night, the Utes fell to Wyoming, 56-55. RED ROCKS AT THE CENTER OF FOUR-TEAM MEET . ' continued from Page 1 faithful if she turns in a good performance. "Gymnastics is a little friendlier sport...but there is that rivalry," said U gymnastics coach Greg Marsden. "It's a little more positive environment. It's usually more cheering for your team than jeering for the opponent." Usually, a Utah team would like ; nothing more than to beat the team down south, and although the Utes can't take the No. 22 Cougars lightly, BYU won't be at the forefront of the Red Rocks' minds come game time. No. 13 Arkansas will be the team Marsden will be most concerned about, mostly because the Razorbacks will be the first litmus test on how the Utes stack up against SEC teams like Georgia and Florida this year. Although Arkansas sits at a paltry 1-7 on the year thus far, its competition has been nothing short of brutal. The "Razorbacks have already faced No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Georgia, No. 6 Nebraska and No. 12 Denver, as well as competing against No. 13 LSU and No.^23 Penn State twice. Thus far, Arkansas' biggest bright spot of the season came on Jan. 19 when the Razorbacks took Georgia to the wire, only to fall .025 point shy of the upset in the end. The one thing the Utes will not be doing Friday is measuring themselves against Arkansas, or anyone else, during the meet. The Red Rocks have enough talent to beat anyone in the nation, which means they wUl be focusing on hit- throw competition in which Cowgirl Amy Bolerjack nailed both of her free-throw attempts, icing the game for Wyoming and ending . a 30game Ute winning streak over the Cowgirls in the one-point heartbreaker. Nothing seemed to be going the Utes' way in the first half. Their shooting was horrific— they made just six field goals in the opening 20 minutes. Even when Wyoming's leading scorer, Hanna Zavecz, was forced to take an early seat after picking up her third foul after five minutes of play, the Utes could not capitalize on the Cowgirls' misfortune. Down by 12 at the half, the issue of pride arose in the locker room, Warburton said. "We let them think they could handle us," said Warburton, who has, without a doubt, claimed the Utes as her team. In the second half, Utah was a different team—less lethargic and more determined—but in the end, the Utes couldn't dig themselves out of the 16-point pit they dug for themselves in the earlygoing. "We were out-hustled and out-rebounded in the first half," Elliott said after the game. "We're not getting things out of our post," Elliott said, perhaps in an attempt to spur power forward Joh-Teena Filipe into using her 6-foot-i frame more effectively. The Utes struggled on the offensive boards, giving up unnecessary second-chance shots. FUipe did, however, sustain an ankle injury in the BYU game Saturday and that may or may not have stilted her performance. Utah's road trip continues as the Utes head to San Diego for a Saturday afternoon game where they'll try to conquer . the Aztecs for the second time this season. n.dicou@chronicle.utah.edu ting their routines and letting the results take care of themselves. The Utes' starting lineup will differ slightly from the one Marsden has used during the first three meets of the season. Marsden feels that freshmen Sarah Shire and Beth Rizzo have earned a shot at the starting lineup. Both gymnasts will get the chance to shine in front of their home crowd for the first time on Friday. Shire will try to duplicate the strong showing she had on vault and beam last week, where she scored a 9.875 and a 9.8, respectively. Rizzo, who has had two strong floor exhibitions of her own, will get the chance to make her starting debut on floor this weekend. For the gymnasts who have made a habit of showing their faces in the starting lineup, routine upgrades and consistency have been the theme in practice this week. Annie DiLuzio, Ashley Postell and Kristina Baskett are in position to put upgrades in their floor routines if all goes well in pre-meet warmups. "I'm very excited—if all goes as planned—to finally get back to where I was last year," Baskett said, "What's new is the double pike at the end of my last pass...hopefully soon I can do the double full layout." Baskett will also be adding a halftwist to her vault. Nicolle Ford has fully recovered from a head cold that limited her to one of the worst performances of her collegiate career last week. She is another gymnast that could unleash an upgrade if Marsden gives the consent. "On floor, my first pass, I've been trying to get in a double layout," Ford said. "Maybe I'll warm it up tomorrow and if all goes well, maybe (Marsden) will let me work it." .'.•.. Cody Brunner The Daily Utah Chronicle Some games have been close and some have been blowouts, but there is one thing that has been absent from the U men's basketball team on its plethora of road trips this season—winning. The Runnin' Utes have lost every one of the seven games they have played on opposing courts this season, with the average defeat coining by 6.8 points. But the Runnin' Utes (7-14,2-6 Mountain West Conference) have a chance to pick up their first road win and some sweet redemption tomorrow when they travel to Fort Worth, Texas, to take on the Horned Frogs (10-10, 2-6 MWC). "Going on the road in front of opposing crowds, you've got to be able to defend and rebound, and we've done neither this year," U coach Ray Giacoletti said. "It just comes down to toughness." TCU will look for its second victory against the Utes tomorrow, as it has already beaten them in Salt Lake City early in the season, 71-68. Like most of the Utes' opponents this season, the Horned Frogs experienced quite a bit of success from behind the three-point line in the game, hitting 55.6 percent of their shots. Junior guard Brent Hackett buoyed the sharpshooting attack for the Horned Frogs, hitting 5-for-8 from behind the arc to finish with 20 points. The Utes aren't the only team that the junior has had success against, though, as he averages 10.5 points per game. "We can't allow Hackett to have any looks," Giacoletti said. "As everyone saw in the last game, he can make it from anywhere if you give him an open look/' The Horned Frogs also boast two of the more agile forward tandems in the conference in Kevin Langford and Alvardo Parker. Both stand at 6-foot-8 and have unique athleticism, considering their size. "Langford and Parker are both ex-" tremely athletic. We've got to do a better job denying those two this time around," Giacoletti said. "If they don't get their hands on the bah1, they can't score." Meanwhile, the Runnin' Utes struggled immensely on defense in their latest blunder against rival BYU, where the home team lost 76-66. Denial, perimeter , defense, ball screens—you KIM PETERSON/ Tht D-jity Utah Chronidt Luke Nevill shoots over BYU center Trent Plaisted for two of his 26 points in the Utes1 loss against BYU on Wednesday night. Utah will travel to Fort Worth, Texas, to face TCU on Saturday. name it, and the Utes had problems with it against the Cougars. BYU forward Keena Young had a field day against the problematic Utes, slashing and shooting his way to a team-high 21 points. "If we don't score, we need to be able to make them not score," U guard Ricky Johns said after the game. "We need to have more pride on the defensive side of the court." In one of the few bright spots for the U on Wednesday night, Johns hit seven of his eight shots to finish the game with 18 points. But the Utes will likely need more than a couple bright spots tomorrow if they hope to cure all of their ills against the Horned Frogs. Utah will take on TCU at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on The Mtn. c.brunner@ chronicle.utah.edu The grass is greener... ...in Santa Clara, where the Swingin' Utes begin 2007 Chris Bellamy Chronicle Sports Editor TYLER COBD/ The Daily Utah Chronicle Nicoile Ford prepares for a transition to the low bar during her uneven bar routine In the Red Rocks' Jan. 19 victory over Washington. Marsden is also hopeful that his team can finally storm through a full beam rotation without complication. "The one that we still haven't just absolutely nailed that we need to get to is balanced beam," Marsden said. "We need to get to where we want to do routines there and not making all the little balance checks and it still looks like we're being conservative." Notes: Utah has only faced Arkansas one time, which was at the 2004 Regional Championships in Tucson, Ariz. Utah beat the Razorbacks 197.624n95.550. Utah also holds a 782 record over BYU and a 13-0 record over SUU. The last tune the Utes lost to the Cougars was in 1998. The Utes have never lost to the Cougars at home. The meet begins at 7 p.m. at the Huntsman Center. Students get in free with their UCards. t.pizza@ \ chronicle.utah.edu The ground may still be covered in snow in Salt Lake City, but the boys of summer will be back on the field this weekend. The U baseball team, which had a nine-game improvement last year to finish right at the .500 mark (2828), opens up its 2007 season on the road this weekend against Santa Clara. The improvement from the Utes' 2005 squad to last year's group was substantial and head coach Bill Kinneberg—in his third year since returning to the program's helm—thinks this team is even better from top to bottom, though whether that translates into a run toward the MWC's upper echelon remains to be seen. "You never know if you're going to make improvement that way, as far as wins and losses go...I do know that we have a better team than last year," Kinneberg said. "We just have to settle into our roles, get guys playing well. The wins will take care of themselves." The team has just completed its third week of practice at the Spence Eccles Field House, and Kinneberg said he's gotten what he wants from his players thus far. They're in shape, they're focused and for the most part, they're healthy. The only significant setback, health-wise, has been that of sophomore hurler Brad DeVore, who is expected to be a major part of the team's pitching rotation but is suffering through a minor bout with tendonitis in his throwing elbow. DeVore, who is projected to figure into the starting rotation at some point, expects to throw "a couple innings" on Saturday,, according to coach Kinneberg. A somewhat new face, and the man who will start the Utes' season;opener Friday afternoon, is senior Chad Cullers. The 6-foot«3 former Lamar Community College standout had his inaugural season at the U cut short in 2005, and then missed all of last season because of injury. "This is his third year now, and he hasn't been healthy," Kinneberg said of his dayone starter. "He's finally healthy (and) he's throwing great." \ As expected, fellow seniors Lucas Trinnaman and Eric King will start on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, and Kinneberg hopes to get a good look at all of his pitch- SeeBASEBALLPageS |
