Although the Utah men’s basketball team hit only three of its final 12 free throws, the Utes (16-3, 6-0 Mountian West Conference) preserved their 48th straight home conference victory with a 67-62 win over Colorado State (9-11, 1-5 MWC) Saturday night.
“I don’t know what to say about [the free throw shooting]. We’ve got to have some degree of mental toughness,” coach Rick Majerus said.
After shooting 13-17 (76.5 percent) in the first half to propel it to a 33-27 lead, Utah shot a horrid 5-15 (33.3 percent) in the second half, allowing the Rams to hang around.
“It’s just one of those nights, where you think about it too much,” Britton Johnsen said. Although Johnsen set a new career-high with 28 points on 9-10 shooting, he made 7-16 free throws.
“I need to get up to the line and shoot them like a man,” he said.
Travis Spivey, who had team highs of 8 assists and 6 rebounds, went 0-4 from the stripe.
“We go through free throws all the time in practice, we just didn’t focus this game,” Spivey said.
Aside from those two, the rest of the team shot 11-12.
Utah had its biggest lead of the game at 58-43 with 6:51 left, after Johnsen completed a 3-point play the old-fashioned way following an assist from Spivey.
But the Rams wouldn’t go away. CSU responded with a 7-0 run, capped by a 3-ball by guard Andy Birley. The lead was cut to 58-51.
Made shots by Jeff Johnsen, Britton Johnsen and Trace Caton kept the U lead at a comfortable 7 to 9 points.
However, after Spivey missed a pair of free throws, CSU’s Freddy Robinson hit a pair of freebies to cut the lead to 4 with 18 seconds left.
With the trend, the Rams would have likely taken the lead for the first time of the game had they not run out of time.
“We’re just not finishing teams off,” Spivey said.
The Johnsen Bros. tandem scored 43 of Utah’s 67 points, as Jeff scored 15 to complement Brit’s 28. CSU’s Brian Greene was the game’s high scorer with 29 points, on 13-19 shooting.
With the win, Utah upped its current win streak to 13 games, beating the Rams in the “sandwich game,” as the contest was stuffed in between Utah’s home win over BYU and its matchup on ESPN2 vs. Wyoming for the MWC’s top placing.
“I don’t think we were as excited as we should have been,” Britton Johnsen said. “Unconsciously, I think we weren’t thinking they could come in and beat us.”
The Utes have reason to be up for their next game. On Monday, the Utes host Wyoming in a battle for MWC’s first place televised on ESPN2.
“Moreso than it being a conference game, it’s a game we want to win. We want to win every game,” Nick Jacobson said.