It was déjà vu all over again against Colorado State on Wednesday night.
The Utes jumped out big on the Rams in the beginning and never looked back, winning 74-45 as Morgan Warburton led the Utes with 27 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Kalee Whipple added a 24 points.
Utah was hot from the start, going up 23-5 in the first eight minutes of the contest. It was a similar beginning to the teams’ first matchup of the season8212;Utah went up 23-0 in the first few minutes of that game.
“We’ve been struggling with our starts, but we did a much better job of getting opportunities this time,” said head coach Elaine Elliott. “We also defended well, so it was a pretty good start.”
Utah’s two star players, Warburton and Whipple, were on point as usual and the two managed to outscore the entire Ram team 51-45. Utah’s wing duo has been putting up gaudy numbers recently8212;Whipple and Warburton average 22 points and 20 points respectively during the past five games.
“They scored from many different places tonight,” Elliott said. “And we also give Warburton and Whipple the toughest perimeter assignments defensively. They’ve really handled that well. Those two have done great at working hard defensively and still have the stamina to score and be effective on offense.”
Along with Whipple and Warburton’s offensive output, the team’s defensive effort was key to allowing Utah to go on huge runs. The Utes went into halftime up 43-20, thanks to scoring runs of 11-0, 13-0, and 9-0. The Rams shot just 20 percent from the field in the first half. Utah’s defense didn’t let up much in the second, as Colorado State was never able to get it within 20 and only ended up shooting 25.8 percent for the game. The Rams would trail by as much as 34.
“Colorado State’s best scoring opportunities are their transition game and their offensive rebounding game,” Elliott said. ” And if you can try and force them to score more within their offense, we felt like we would be more successful, and I felt we were able to do that.”
The Utes’ transition defense also stood out. None of Utah’s 18 turnovers led to any fast break opportunities for the Rams, as CSU was outscored in fast break points 22-0.
“That was a big key in our practice, because Colorado State is a really good transition team,” Whipple said. “We did drills with that over and over because that’s how they’re going to get points in transition. And as for us, we just did a good job securing the rebounds, and getting our wings out and run.”
Utah will have one week off before its next game, at UNLV. Thanks to the CSU win, the Utes will go into Las Vegas with a two-game advantage over San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference. Utah is now 18-7 overall and 11-1 in conference play.
Tyler CobbThe Ute?s Morgan Warburton added 27 points in Utah?s crushing of Colorado State Wednesday night at the Huntsman Center. The Utes beat the Rams 74-45.