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The Daily Utah Chronicle

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The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Men’s Basketball: Utah Hopes To Keep Winning Streak Alive In Arizona Matchup

Mens+Basketball%3A+Utah+Hopes+To+Keep+Winning+Streak+Alive+In+Arizona+Matchup
Christopher Ayers

Utah has never beaten Arizona since head coach Larry Krystkowiak has been at Utah. The Utes are currently riding a five-game winning streak. One of these streaks is bound to end, but Utah’s just hoping it’ll be on the winning side of it all.

Utah will take on Arizona on Saturday in the Huntsman Center, and after a solid performance on Thursday night against ASU, the team has all the confidence it could need heading into this Top 25 matchup.

The Utes made 16 three-pointers against ASU and even then were shooting just 40 percent from beyond the arc. The three seniors on the team accounted for 11 of those three-pointers, and Jordan Loveridge knows they need to bring the same type of mentality and effort against the Wildcats to help out the big men.

Part of the reason the Utes had so much success from long distance was the fact that ASU was focusing most of its energy on guarding Jakob Poeltl, who only finished with seven points. Last year against Arizona, Poeltl wasn’t all too successful and only had four points when the two teams met in Salt Lake.

If for some reason the same thing happens again and Arizona does a good job of containing the Utes’ leading scorer and Kyle Kuzma, the outside play must be more of an emphasis once the game tips off.

“We just kind of know that teams are going to key in on that because Jakob has been so dominant inside — same with Kuz,” Loveridge said. “It was nice to pick up the slack when those guys were getting doubled and tripled down there.”

Bench players also picked up the slack in the matchup with ASU. When the Utes were leading 44-10 at the half, Krystkowiak decided to sit the majority of the role players and get more guys some needed playing time — this had benefits for the team as a whole, especially with the quick turnaround.

With just about 40 hours separating the two Arizona games, Utah could be at a disadvantage, considering Arizona played on Wednesday night. However, the players aren’t concerned with what little time they have to prepare and will come ready to play no matter what.

Brekkott Chapman saw more playing time than usual and is sure that because of it, he’ll be able to handle anything when he’s called to play on Saturday.

“It was definitely good for us to come do some work tonight and keep the stars off,” Chapman said. “This Arizona game is going to be huge, especially for the support players to come in when our starters need a little bit of a break or someone’s struggling a little bit.”

While the majority of the Utes are confident they will be ready to play, Krystkowiak thinks they’re facing an uphill battle. Nonetheless, he has faith that his team will get the job done, especially because of its most latest performance.

Krystkowiak loves the way his team is playing defense and the way they are taking care of the ball. Aside from winning the game, one of the team’s goals was to have fewer than 10 turnovers, and it did just that. The Utes turned the ball over nine times and it’s this type of play Utah needs to bring to the court on Saturday.

“We have a formula for playing winning basketball,” Krystkowiak said. “Let’s try to come out on Saturday and try to win the first four minutes — keep it kind of simple. It’s not an elephant in the room you’re trying to figure out. It’s pretty defined what it is we’re going to have to do.”

Since this is the only matchup between the two schools this season, Krystkowiak is glad to be playing at home with the Ute fans to support them the entire game.

“We understand the importance of playing hard and defending and doing the things you need to do in order to win and our crowd gives us a great energy,” Krystkowiak said.

Game time is set for 12 p.m. MT.

[email protected]

@kbrenneisen

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