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Show SPORTS www.dailyutahchronicle.com TODAY'S SKI REPORT Alta Sin 21° / 9 a.m. 30° / 3 p.m. 5 Monday February 24, 2014 conditions & weather from utahskiweathercom Snow early Brighton tin 21° / 9 a.m. 30° / 3 p.m. Canyons lin 26° / 9 a.m. 36° / 3 p.m. Deer Valley 26° 360 /93a.m. p.m. Snowbird 0 in lin 21° / 9 a.m. 30° / 3 p.m. Solitude lin 22° / 9 a.m. 31° / 3 p.m. GYMNASTICS UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS TODAY: Men's golf Red Rocks show improvement Griffin Adams ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Utah @ Snowman Getaway All day Goodyear, Ariz. TUESDAY: Men's golf Utah @ Snowman Getaway All day Goodyear, Ariz. PAC-12 SCORE ROUNDUP WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS Utah - 197.575 Oregon St. - 196.450 Stanford - 196.250 UCLA - 196.900 Arizona - 195.350 Arizona St. - 196.125 Cal - 196.425 Washington - 195.00 Sacramento St. (tri-meet) - 193.425 Continuing their season pattern full of extreme ups and downs, the No. 4 Red Rocks bounced back from their first loss of the season last Monday by beating No. II Oregon State, 197.575-196.450 Saturday night at the Huntsman Center. Utah's score was its second highest of the year. Perhaps more importantly, the Red Rocks had zero falls throughout the entire evening, something they hadn't achieved all season. That included their performance on beam, where they hadn't been clean since the season opener. Greg Marsden's bunch scored 49.175 on the apparatus Saturday, the team's highest mark on the event since Feb. 1 at Arizona State. "We've still got work to do, but it was a step back in the right direction," Marsden said. "I saw some things that we can do that might help us. It was a nice step. We've still got to get the score up a couple tenths on that event, but that's, again, a step in the right direction." Georgia Dabritz in particular took a step in the right direction on beam. See GYMNASTICS page 7 BRENT UBERTY/The Daily Utah Chronicle Senior Mary Beth Lofgren scored 9.925 on beam at Saturday night's meet at the Huntsman Center. BASKETBALL Runnin' Utes squash Sun Devils Stellar defensive play energizes crowd in Huntsman Center Ryan Miller STAFF WRITER Coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss to Arizona last week, the Utes showed they wanted nothing to do with an extra session Sunday night against Arizona State. Utah seized control early with a dominating first half performance and was able to finish off the Sun Devils 86-63 at the Huntsman Center. Arizona State's Shaquielle McKissic scored the game's opening bucket, but from there it was all the Utes. They responded to McKissic's field goal by going on a 20-4 run that spanned nearly six minutes to jump out to a 20-6 lead at 13:08 mark of the first half. During the run, Utah played some of its best basketball of the season. Princeton Onwas got his first start in conference play and set the tone early on the defensive end. Two minutes into the contest, Onwas met the Sun Devils' leading scorer Jahii Carson in the air for highlightworthy block that energized the team and the crowd of 10,401, sparking the run. "Princeton's block was a turning point," said Utes head coach Larry Krystkowiak. "He really brought the emotion and it got the crowd going. He's quite the weapon for us." Other Utes got into the blocking action, including Dallin Bachynski against his older brother, Jordan. At the 13:20 mark of the half, Utah had as many blocks as Arizona State had points — six. The Utes finished the game with a seasonhigh 12 blocked shots. On the offensive side, Utah got a spark from an unlikely source. Senior Brazilian big man Renan Lenz had two special visitors for Sunday's game, as his parents made the trip from Brazil to watch their son finish off his collegiate career. Lenz made that trip well worth it, dominating for a five-minute span of the opening frame with a variety of low-post moves and prowess from the perimeter. In that key stretch, Lenz scored 10 points and helped the Utes extend their lead to 32-11. Lenz finished the game with 14 points and three rebounds. "Renan has stuck with it and he's probably the most positive guy on the team," Krystkowiak said. "With his family here for the first time ever, it was supposed to happen that way." COLUMN Plouffe shines despite team's unlucky year RYAN MCDONALD I ERIN BURNS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Senior forward Renan Lenz jumps to catch a ball at Sunday night's game at the Huntsman Center. Utah led by as many as 27 points in the opening session and went into the half with a 5126 advantage. The Sun Devils didn't just lie down in the second half, though. A 3-pointer by Arizona State's Egor Koulechov finished off an 8-o Sun Devil run to cut the lead to 13 at 61-48 with 10:22 remaining. However, on the next Ute possession, Jordan Loveridge hit a trey of his own that spearheaded a 14-3 run that pushed the lead back 24 at 75-51 and end any thoughts of an Arizona State comeback. Loveridge and Delon Wright bounced back from subpar performances against the Wildcats, with Loveridge scoring 18 points to go along with six rebounds while Wright returned to his stat-stuffing self with a line of 22 points, nine rebounds, six assists, three blocks and three steals. Wright was also a perfect 7-for-7 from the field. Arizona State head coach Herb Sendek was less than impressed with his team's performance. "We played horrible basketball," he said. "I have no explanation. You would have to ask [my players]. We didn't make plays, we didn't defend, we couldn't make shots or free throws. It is really inexplicable. We played a dismal performance." The Utes will return to action on Saturday when Colorado comes to Salt Lake City for Senior Day. r.miller@chronicle.utah.edu Sports Editor feel really badly for Ute forward Michelle Plouffe. Over the weekend, the senior became just the third player in Utah women's basketball history to reach 2,000 points and i,000 rebounds for a career. The 6-foot-4-inch Canadian who represented her country at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London is probably headed for the WNBA when this season is over. Seems like Plouffe wouldn't have much to complain about, eh? Not so fast. There's no denying that the Utes have had a very difficult season. Hope abounded last spring that Utah could make the NCAA Tournament this year, but those dreams took a big hit when Plouffe's fellow countrywoman and frontcourt mate Taryn Wicijowski was lost for the season with a torn ACL. The Utes took another hit when Paige Crozon, another Canadian, was out for the season. Though the Utes haven't sustained any further huge injuries, the aches, pains, nicks and cuts typical of any season haven't helped. All of this left Utah head coach Anthony Levrets with Plouffe and a bunch of players who are either young or unproven, and it has shown. The Utes are just 4-12 in conference action with one weekend of the regular season left to play, plus at least one game of the Pac-12 Tournament. I'm sure that in a sense they're itching to get the season over with. Now back to Plouffe. Perhaps it's because she knows a professional career is on the horizon so she wants to audition well for scouts, but the senior has been more dialed in this season than any player I've seen in a long, long time. She wants to finish her career on a high note. Because of this, I feel bad that it has been such a painful season. Plouffe isn't the first to experience a tough season in her final campaign. There are thousands of collegiate athletes, and good ones like Plouffe, who haven't gone out the way they would have liked. Not every team is amazing every year. Still, it's tough to see a player who will go down as an all-time great at Utah and not experience team success her final year. She's having an outstanding campaign individually, but team success or failure really does have an impact on a player's overall feeling about a season. Maybe I feel bad for Plouffe because I know her personally and realize she's different from a lot of elite athletes. I had a class with her last spring and we got assigned to be in the same group for a project. It was due during the Utes' busiest time of the season, but Plouffe was a great member of the group. I'm not sure other athletes would have been as helpful. She's awesome. In any event, kudos need to be extended to Plouffe for joining the 2,000 point, woo rebound club at Utah. Her Ute career needs to be remembered even if the end of it hasn't unfolded quite how she may have wanted. r.mcdonald@chronicle.utah.edu |