University of Utah Student Newspapers | 2008-01-28 | Page 7

7 Monday, January 28,2008 _ SPORTS _ ^ www.dailyutohchronicle.com — Utes aet much-needed MWC win 2005—came on 3-point baskets. Boylen called Drca's performance "unbelievable." The first-year head Defense? Check. Ball movement? coach decided to put Drca back into Superb. Three-point shooting? His- the game with two fouls in the first half, which is not something Boylen toric. Runnin' Utes head coach Jim felt comfortable doing. Another considerable factor in the Boylen has been saying all year that his team is "buying in" to his system. victory was Utah's ability to hold the Saturday against TCU, the Runnin' Horned Frogs' sharp-shooting guard Henry Saiter to only six points, Utes proved that. The Utes stayed true to their coach which is nine below his season avby forcing three consecutive TCU erage. "Our number one thing on.the turnovers at the start of the game and sprinted out to a large lead, which board was Salter's (3-pointers)," turned into a 74-58 victory for the Boylen said. "He's a big part of the team. His threes aren't momentum Utes. The Utes, who were coming off killers, they're momentum starta heart-breaking three-game losing ers." Boylen attributed the success streak, came out and dominated right to the Ute defense, which kept the off the bat with a 20-3 run. Senior captain Johnnie Bryant team in the game when the offense made sure it would not be the same was in droughts. Case in point: TCU song and dance for the Utes by giv- did not score a field goal until the ing a record-setting performance. 12:50 mark in the first half. Later, the Bryant made a team record with Utes saw their large lead shrink to eight 3-point baskets on 8-for-i4 eight with about 15 minutes to go shooting to finish with 24 points off in the game, but as Boylen said, the the bench. It wasn't just Bryant who defense provides the offense, and was hot from behind the arc—the the Utes went on a 10-0 run behind two 3-pointers from Bryant to seal Utes made 14 3-pointers in all. "He did shoot the heck of out the win. it, but those other six were wide When Bryant subbed out with 1:36 open," Boylen said. "But that's what remaining, Boylen ran out to midhe can do as well as anyone in the court and rose Bryant's arm toward country." the crowd in celebration of his perPossibly the most impressive sta- formance. "I give a lot of credit to my teamtistic of the night was the 23 Ute assists on 26 field goals. Backup com- mates. (I) thought they did a good bo-guard Luka Drca came off the job finding me," Bryant said. "If it bench to dish out 10 dimes by him- wasn't for my teammates, I wouldn't self. Eight of Drca's 10 assists—which is the most since Marc Jackson's 11 in See BRYANT Page 8 Christopher Kamrani STAFF WRITER Utah head coach Jim Boylen congratulates Johnnie Bryant for setting a new school record of eight 3-point baskets in one game on Saturday against TCU. The Utes defeated the Horned Frogs 74-58. Women 'Whip' up Red Rocks heat up win on the road against Sun Devils Natalie Dicou STAFF WRITER . The U women's basketball team gave a little payback Saturday afternoon. Last year, TCU blew past the Utes in Fort Worth, Texas, winning the game by 24 points. This year, Utah's trip to TCU was much different. Led by sophomore Kalee Whipple—who had a career-high 30 points on 9-of-n shooting— the Utes dealt the Horned Frogs a 60-50 loss and picked up their nth straight win. "I just felt good going into the game, but I credit my teammates for setting screens and getting me open," Whipple said. It was the first time Utah (16-3,5-0 in MWC) had beaten TCU (10-9, 3-2 in MWC) on its home floor since the Horned Frogs joined the Mountain West Conference three years ago. "The intensity has improved from last year," Utah head coach Elaine Elliott said. "If you remember how bad we were last year, I mean, we just got throttled here, and we've been wanting to play here since." The win didn't come easily for Utah. The game was closer than the double-digit margin suggests. After extending their lead to 11 points midway through the second half, the Utes See BASKETBALL Page 10 ~ PLAYER OF THE GAME Kalee Whipple Kalee Whipple helped the Utes to a 60-50 win over the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth-on Saturday, scoring a career-high 30 points on 9-oM 1 shooting. The sophomore lit up the Scoreboard for a careerhigh 30 pants on 9-of-H shooting and led the Utes to a 60-50 road victory over TCU Whipple also recorded 10 rebounds and four steals. Tiger handled comment well W ith the exception of maybe a handful of people who have lived or will live on this planet, the entire human race would have a hard time duplicating what TONY Tiger Woods has done on a golf course. I can only hope that more people "will try to dupliPIZZA cate what he has done—and it has nothing to do with marrying a Swedish model. • Lately, Woods has been under a lot of pressure for reasons that have nothing to do with golf. nicely and was dying off until Golfweek Maga' On Jan. 4, Kelly Tilghman, an anchor for zine threw gasoline on the fire by running an the Golf Channel, made the comment that for illustration of a noose on its Jan. 19 cover to young players on the PGA Tour to beat Woods, highlight the package of stories regarding the they should "lynch him in a back alley." controversy with Tilghman's comment. .' The comment was inappropriate and disGolfweek replaced the man responsible, gusting at best, in any context, but Tilghman is long-time editor and vice president Dave SeReportedly a close friend of Woods. anor, the next day for the racially insensitive ' The Golf Channel promptly suspended cover. Tilghman for two weeks. Tilghman also pubThrough all this, Woods has remained brief Jicly and privately apologized for the com- with his comments and has done nothing but ment, and Woods accepted. Woods, who is of try to move past this incident, at least publicblack and Asian decent, said through his agent ly. that he didn't think there was any ill intent, acSome haven't been too keen on the way jcording to www.golf.com and numerous other Woods handled the situation. Most notably, hews sources. ••; The situation seemed to be handled quite See PIZZA Page 10 Jon Gilbert STAFF WRITER The Utah gymnastics team was on fire from the start of Friday's road meet and didn't slow down all night long en route to a handy defeat of Arizona State 196.700-195.626 in Tempe, Ariz. The Red Rocks took an early lead on the uneven bars while the Sun Devils competed on the vault. The U never looked back and improved to 3-0 on the season. Both teams posted season-high scores in the meet. Senior Ashley Postell claimed her third all-around crown of the season with a 39.475 performance, sparked by her event-winning 9.925 beam routine that highlighted and capped off Utah's night. Utah continued its season's progression by evolving its lineup and improving upon its previous season high for the second consecutive week. Achieving success on the road is important, Utah head coach Greg Marsden said. "How we do on the road is really the preparation we need for regionals and nationals," Marsden said. Daria Bijak took her first turn as an all-around performer and contributed a solid outing. She won the vault with a 9.875 and had every score counted except for her floor routine. After her performance, Bijak established herself as a solid option for Marsden in the all-around competition. "Because of the nature of what she does, I think (Bijak) is someone we need in there," Marsden said. Beth Rizzo sat out on the floor exercise because she had been struggling with her final pass. However, her impressive routine in exhibition left Marsden second-guessing himself. Stephanie Neff wasn't secondguessing her support group in the crowd. The sophomore from Arizona estimated that 30 to 35 friends and family collaborated to form her fan section in the Wells Fargo Arena. "It was crazy to see so many people here for me," Neff said. The support worked, boosting Neff to a 9,875 on her floor routine. The score earned Neff her first career victory, which she shared with teammates Postell and Kristina Baskett. AARON SWENDIMAN/rAfftj./y itiahQuwittt "All my family was here, so it was even better," Neff said. Daria Bijak earned a score of 9.825 on the bars Friday night against Marsden said that he was very ASU. Bijak competed in the all-around for the first time this season. happy with the team's improvement, but wants vault landings cleaned up. That came in second in the all-around with a ficriterion has given Utah some problems ear- nal score of 39.350. The Ail-American scored lier this season, but the team hopes to clear team highs in every event but vault. things up this week. Utah returns home next week to take on "We still are giving away a lot of tenths (of Minnesota in the Huntsman Center. Minnea point) on vault landings," Marsden said. sota is Utah's first unranked opponent of the Arizona State dropped to 1-4 on the sea- season. son in its home opener. Junior Nicole Harris [e-mail]