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Show 6 Tuesday February 18, 2014 SPORTS UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS WEDNESDAY: Men's Basketball Utah vs. Arizona 7 p.m. Huntsman Center AP TOP 25 MEN'S BASKETBALL RANK TEAM 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11 11. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. Syracuse Florida Wichita St. Arizona Duke San Diego St. Cincinnati Kansas Villanova Saint Louis (t) Creighton (t) Louisville Michigan St. Virginia Iowa Wisconsin Iowa St. Kentucky Texas Michigan UConn Memphis UCLA Ohio St. Gonzaga www.dailyutahchronicle.com GYMNASTICS Beam proves ultimate downfall Griffin Adams ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Balance beam has been giving Utah problems all season long, but the apparatus has never been so harsh as to cause the team to lose a meet. That changed Monday afternoon as the No. 4 Red Rocks suffered their first loss of the season, falling to the No. 12 Stanford Cardinal, 197.000 - 196.300. Utah carried a slight lead into beam, its final rotation of the day, but imploded on its way to losing. "It's a tough place to be in when you're on the road," said co-head coach Greg Marsden. "We need to go into those situations and take care of business. The great teams can do that, and we can't put ourselves in that category at this point." Leadoff Baely Rowe started things right by staying on the beam and finishing with a 9.725. After that, in a move that seemed to be called for by Red Rocks fans for weeks now, junior Georgia Dabritz lined up by the beam instead of the usual second performer, Breanna Hughes. Dabritz posted just a 9.675 in her first beam routine of the season. "I just did the same thing that I do every practice and warmup," Dabritz said. "I just wish the outcome could've been different." Fellow junior Tory Wilson picked up the slack a little bit, scoring a 9.775 on the next routine. Unfortunately for Utah, things began to go downhill at that point. Mary Beth Lofgren, a former AllAmerican on beam who was coming off of a career-best beam performance last week against Arizona, could not keep her balance and fell off the apparatus. The fall resulted in a score of 9.150 and put pressure on the rest of the lineup to stay on the beam. That didn't happen. Matters continued to worsen when Kailah Delaney followed up Lofgren's performance with a fall of her own for the second week in a row. With the two falls and subpar scores before that, the beam was a nightmare for the Red Rocks and was what ultimately decided their fate. "We went over [to the beam] wanting to win the meet," Marsden said. "It wasn't just one person, it was the entire lineup. Not one person went up there and did what they've been doing in practice." Utah's final score of 196.300 was the lowest it has posted all season long, and followed up last week's season high. "It's disappointing," Marsden said. "That event has cost us the last couple of years, and we have worked so hard to get better at it. We've got to get better because it's a problem. We can't act like it's not there. Right now, 144 nothing seems to be working, and I've % got to accept responsibility for that. 111 I'm failing right now." fisti rall■ ar t 111., The Red Rocks will return home to face Oregon State on Saturday night. Running on a short week, Utah will have to bounce back quickly from Monday's disappointment. "We are beating ourselves up a little bit right now," Dabritz said. "We have to shake it off pretty fast. I'm sure we CHRIS AYERS/The Daily Utah Chronicle will be gym ready all week and get our confidence back." Georgia Dabritz competes on the beam at the Huntsman Center • g.adams@chronicle.utah.edu on Feb. 7. MEN'S BASKETBALL WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Runnin' Utes fall to Bruins, 80-66 `We've got Ryan Miller STAFF WRITER DANE GOODWIN/The Daily Utah Chronicle Jordan Loveridge loses the ball to the Washington State Cougars' defense at the Huntsman Center on Feb. 8. Maybe the demons haven't quite been exorcised. Coming off its first road victory of the season last Thursday at USC, Utah was looking to show that the road monkey was fully off its back Saturday at UCLA. The Utes had no such luck, as they virtually disappeared at the beginning of the second half and the Bruins ran away with an 8o-66 victory. Everything that has cost Utah road victories this season has come out in fiveminute stretches. Turnovers, the inability to hit key shots, more turnovers and helplessness on the glass have doomed the Utes in short spurts. On Saturday, they were held scoreless for the first 5:31 of the second half, and by the time a shot finally sank for Utah, UCLA had scored 14 straight points en route to a double-digit lead. "We came out and had four turnovers before the first timeout, and they had nine points off those turnovers," said head coach Larry Krystkowiak on the ESPN 700 postgame show "We just shot ourselves in the foot offensively. That puts too much heat on your team." As the lead grew, it seemed the Bruins got more and more engaged on the defensive end. "You forget sometimes that you have to play really hard," Krystkowiak said. "We weren't finishing a lot of balls around the basket, we were bobbling balls and losing those 5o/5o balls, and when they are dunking it and having fun, it just compounds." The Utes were able to overcome slow first halves from their two leading scorers to go into halftime down by just two, 33-31. Sophomore Jordan Loveridge was held scoreless in the opening frame while junior Delon Wright was limited to four points. The main weakness in Wright's offensive game is his jump shot, and the Bruins sagged off the L.A. native, clogging up driving lanes. Even with their two offensive stars struggling, the Utes were able to move the ball effectively in the first half and create good looks. Brandon Taylor, Dakarai Tucker and Princeton Onwas all contributed in keeping Utah in striking distance. It was a whole different story once the second session began. "It's tough to come into a gym like this and play against such a good team," said freshman Kenneth Ogbe on the postgame show. "If you make a mistake, they really come after it. You can't make a mistake against a team like that." To their credit, the Utes didn't cave after getting down by as many as 16. Wright drove hard possession after possession trying to get himself and his teammates going. He finished with 16 points, six rebounds and seven assists in the losing effort. Wright was the only Ute to reach double figures. The dominant player all game was UCLA's Jordan Adams. The Utes were powerless to stop Adams as he finished with a game-high 24 points and seemed to make the big basket whenever Utah was showing signs of a comeback. The road ahead doesn't get any easier for the Utes. They will welcome No. 4 Arizona to the Huntsman Center on Wednesday at 8 p.m. "You can count the games on one hand before we reach Vegas [the Pac-12 Tournament], so things get magnified," Krystkowiak said. "It's been an interesting story, and we have learned a lot of lessons, but now is the time to start clicking and start playing well." r.miller@chronicle.utah.edu BASEBALL Utah opens season with a bang, wins series 3-1 ERIN BURNS The Daily Utah Ian Smith STAFF WRITER Chronicle Cory Hunt throws the ball to first base during last season's game against BYU at Spring Mobile Field. Utah will return home after opening the 2014 campaign by splitting four games with Sacramento State over the weekend. Each game was close, as all were decided by one run. The season opener saw the Utes lose 3-2 then bounce back in game two with a 2-1 victory. They lost steam and fell in game three 5-4 but ended the opening weekend with a 5-4 win Monday. "I think it's going to be like this most of the year — close ball games with pitching keeping us in it," said head coach Bill Kinneberg. "We don't have a real explosive offense yet." The first game was harsh for Utah, as it fell behind 2-0 in the first inning. Ute freshman Josh Rose had a nice debut, as he scored a run and brought another home, but the Hornets fended off the Utah charge. "We played solid, but we just couldn't get a whole lot going," Kinneberg said in a press release. See BASEBALL page 7 to find a way to win' ERIN BURNS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Michelle Plouffe drives to the basket at the Huntsman Center on Sunday. Brandon Barlow STAFF WRITER Utah once again couldn't catch a break. Tied with Washington at 6o apiece Sunday at the Huntsman Center with 3:58 remaining, the Utes couldn't make plays down the stretch and fell to the Huskies 67-66. Utah was outrebounded 49-36, but it was the disparity at the foul line which left head coach Anthony Levrets most frustrated. "Obviously I am really disappointed with the loss," Levrets said. "We competed and battled, but once again, just another facet of the game that we struggle with. We put them at the free throw line 24 times, and that was the difference in the game." Washington shot 19-of-24 from the charity stripe while the Utes produced a meager three-of-five on freebies en route to their fifth consecutive loss. They have now lost three games by three points or fewer on the season. Levrets decided to switch up the starting lineup, as four freshmen began the game with sophomore Danielle Rodriguez. As soon as Michelle Plouffe entered the game, the senior began to dominate. For the second contest in a row, she scored 31 points, and she also hauled in 14 rebounds See BASKETBALL page 7 |