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Show 6 SPORTS Monday, March 1, 2010 Tuesday www.dailyutahchronicle.cor Friday ednesday Men's Tennis Men's Basketball Women's Basketball Men's Tennis 1:30 p.m. PT Berkeley, Calif BYU @ Utah 7 p.m. Huntsman Center Utah @ California TODAY'S SKI REPORT Alta 18° / 9 a.m. 30° / 3 p.m. Utah @ BYU 7 p.m. Provo Baseball Utah @ Washington State Utah @ Stanford 1:30 p.m. PT Palo Alto, Calif 18° / 9 a.m. 30° / 3 p.m. Women's Tennis Track Last Chance Qualifier Nebraska @ Utah 1 p.m. PT Pullman, Wash. 7 p.m. Eccles Tennis Center All Day TBA conditions & weather from utahskiweather.com Packed powder and bumps Brighton ► Canyons 23° / 9 a.m.• 36° 13 p.m. 23 ° / 9 a.m. Deer Valley 3 6 0 / 3 p.m. Snowbird 18° / 9 a.m. 30° / 3 p.m. Solitude 19° I 9 a.m. 31°13 p .m. MEN'S BASKETBALL Utes win 2 in a row with Wyoming game Paige Fieldsted SPORTS EDITOR THIEN SOK/The Daily Utah Chronicle Caron Brown had 16 points and four assists coming off the bench Saturday against Wyoming. The Utes overcame sloppy play early in the game to win their second in a row, 74-64. On Saturday, the Runnin' Utes basketball team did something it hasn't done since the beginning of January— it earned its second win in a row, picking up a 74-64 victory over Wyoming. The Utes haven't consecutively won more than one game since they won three in a row stretching from Dec. 29 to Jan. 9. With two games left in the regular season, the win pushes the Utes back to .5oo. "I don't want to make a big deal of it, but we're back to 14-14 and 7-7, which is an accomplishment for these guys," said head coach Jim Boylen. "We kept battling and fighting. I think we played very competitive basketball." Behind a huge performance from their bench, the Utes overcame several early turnovers and a slow defensive start. Led by Carlon Brown with 16 points off the bench, Utah's reserve players scored 38 points, as every player who stepped on the court scored, including 26 points from freshmen. "Good teams do that," Boylen said. "We got a lot from a lot of guys. We had four freshmen on the court, which seemed like a ton at times. I've never really held my freshmen back too much—you can get burned that way. The only way they are going to grow is to play in the street and hope they don't get run over." The Utes, who are normally solid in defending the post, gave up 46 points in the paint, most of them to fresh- man Desmar Jackson, who finished the game with 31 points for Wyoming. Despite giving up so many points to Jackson, Boylen said he has to give him credit for making tough shots. "I said at the beginning of the game that Jackson was going to be a difficult match-up problem for us, and he was," Boylen said. "He did a great job. He's a terrific freshman." Turnovers were another problem area for the Utes. They gave up 22 points off of 14 turnovers to the Cowboys, most of which came in the first half, allowing the game to be tied at 3131 going into the break. For most of the game, the score went back and forth, with 14 lead changes and the score being tied nine times. With 13 minutes left in the game, senior guard Luka Drca hit a 3-pointer that gave the Utes a 42-41 advantage that they held on to for the rest of the game. Drca led the team with 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half. "We had to find out how to win games," Brown said. "We haven't had that mindset of toughness, of getting loose balls and hitting free throws. We've been in a lot of close games this season and until now we haven't figured out how to win." The Cowboys made several attempts at a comeback and got within one point of the Utes several times in the last minutes of the game. Following a double technical with 7 minutes 48 seconds left, the Utes got the spark they needed to take control of the game. Jackson and Chris Hines exchanged a few words after Jackson almost elbowed Hines in the face. The confrontation saw Boylen race across the court to grab both Hines and Henderson out of the action, and the officials gave technical fouls to both Hines and Jackson. The incident lit a fire under his team, Boylen said. "I don't really like situations like that dictating the game—let guys play, let them play hard, let them play physical," Boylen said. "I thought it was handled well. But it helped our guys in the huddle. They were really jacked up and excited." With BYU on the horizon, the Utes said they are halfway to their goal of winning the See MEN Page 7 Utah 74 .463 Score FG% .471 .762 37 3-point FG% FT% Rebounds 13 Assists 5 5 Steals Blocks Wyoming 64 .491 .077 .611 26 8 8 7 SOFTBALL GYMNASTICS Softball picks up 2 wins in preseason tournament Rocks struggle in rivalry victory Corbin Godfrey Paige Fieldsted STAFF WRITER SPORTS EDITOR a loss to Fresno State, ii-o. On Friday it was much of same, as Utah fell to BayThe weekend was a slow lor, 4-o. The Utes posted start for the softball team, just 12 hits and two runs which dropped its first the first two days, which three games. But solid play was uncharacteristic of in the final two games Sat- the team, said head coach urday gave the Utes two Amy Hogue. wins and a 2-3 record on "We were struggling the weekend in the Cathe- with our aggressiveness," dral City Classic in Palm Hogue said. "It's hard to Springs, Calif. understand since we have Utah's slow start began been swinging so well Thursday when it fell to recently—we just didn't Oregon, 4-2, followed by swing the bat." FULL STORY ONLINE BASEBALL Team sweeps weekend series Bubba Brown STAFF WRITER After talking about becoming more consistent after last week's series loss to University of California, Davis, the Utah baseball team was able to do just that while sweeping a four-game series at Sam Houston State during the weekend. The Utes used an offensive barrage to take the first game Friday night, hitting three home runs en route to a 12-4 win. Designated hitter Devin Walker put the Utes on the board right away with a three-run homer in the top of the first inning. FULL STORY ONLINE The Red Rocks gymnastics team got back to its winning ways in Provo on Friday night, but didn't return to its earlier season form that has eluded the team for the past three meets. Despite earning a 195.925-194.375 victory over the Cougars, the Utes were unable to shake the errors that have been following them since competing against Utah State three weeks ago. After saying the team had gone backward, co-head coach Greg Marsden said he feels like the team is in a similar place as it has been the past couple of weeks. "In the last two meets, there have been good things and encouraging things," Marsden said. "But the beam set was obviously discouraging." Utah led from the beginning of the meet and was successful on three of four events, holding steady and looking poised through the uneven bars, vault and floor. However, the Red Rocks struggled on beam for the second week in a row. After having not counted a fall in See the video of event winners online)) www.dailyutahchronicle.com Kelsey Price STAFF WRITER At the close of Friday's events at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championship, Utah track and field-12 points behind New Mexico—seemed bound to a fifth-place conference finish. However, with a slew of top-eight performances, the Utes gained an additional 4o points on the final day of the meet, earning Utah a better-than-expected fourth-place finish. FULL STORY ONLINE rfi) Read the full articles online » www.dailyutahchronicle.corn Cortni Beers dismounts from the beam Friday night against BYU. Even with the team getting a win, its scores were not what they were earlier in the year. WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Close call brings Utah's streak to 5 STAFF WRITER Utah leaps into No. 4 finish See GYMNASTICS Page 7 LENNIE MAHLER /The Daily Utah Chronicle Corbin Godfrey TRACK & FIELD more than a year, the Red Rocks counted falls on beam in both of the past two meets. Stephanie McAllister went first on the beam and fell twice in her routine. Two gymnasts later, Annie DiLuzio also fell, and normally strong Dania Bijak struggled to stay on as well, having several balance checks throughout her routine. "(McAllister) had the fall last week and wasn't able to train much at all this week because she hurt her ankle," Marsden said. "She was worried too much about not falling, and she wasn't having fun and performing, which is her strength." Jamie Deetscreek was the only gymnast who didn't struggle on the beam, winning the event with a score of 9.925. After last week's disappointing meet, Deetscreek said a hard week of practice helped her get back on track. "Obviously, this week was much better," Deetscreek said. "Last week it just spiraled downhill—it wasn't what I'm used to doing. I worked really hard, Make it five. After Sunday's last-second win against Wyoming in Laramie, the women's basketball team has won its past five games and is playing its best basketball of the season heading into the final week of regular-season play. "Our team has always been one that we knew was going to get better later in the season," said head coach Elaine Elliott. "We just have so many young kids that play, so we have just tried not to worry about anything else but getting better and that's what is leading us to victories down the stretch." Kalee Whipple hit a pair of free throws to give Utah a 50-48 lead with 37 seconds left in regulation, then stole the ball out of opponent Emma Langford's hands during a shot attempt to tie the game. Wyoming quickly fouled, sending Whipple to the free-throw line for an opportunity to put the game away. She missed the first free throw, and Wyoming's Randi Richardson pulled down the rebound and pushed the ball down the court with nine seconds left. Richardson was called for a traveling violation with just two seconds left on the clock, turning the ball over to Utah. Janita Badon caught a deep in-bounds pass at midcourt with no one around her and laid the ball in as time expired, giving the Utes the win by a final score of 52-48, and Wyoming its first conference loss at home this season. "That's a great win for us," Elliott said. "We are the only team to come in here and get that." After leading for most of the first half, Utah surrendered the lead late and Wyoming took a 24-22 lead heading into the locker room. In the second half, there was never a lead of more than five points, and the score was tied seven times with the lead changing just as frequently. "I just told the team, 'Listen, you've got to win the ball—you've got to win these little battles,'" Elliott said. Utah shot 35 percent on 21-of-59 shooting in the game while holding Wyoming to 29 percent shooting on 16 of 24. The Utes shot 8 for io from the free-throw line. The Utes won the battle of the boards with 43 rebounds to 38 from the Cowgirls. Both teams turned the ball over II times, and Utah capitalized with 17 points off turnovers compared to II from Wyoming. "When it came down to it, we just made really smart plays," Taryn Wicijowski said. Three players scored in double digits for the Utes, led by 17 from Whipple, who also pulled down seven rebounds. Badon was See WOMEN Page 8 |