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Pullman, Wash. • The Utes came to Washington State hoping to get extra minutes from its bench ahead of the Pac-12 tournament, but one of the team's bench players sat our Thursday night.

Sophomore Kenneth Ogbe made the trip to Beasley Coliseum, but sat out with a groin injury, according to Utah athletics. It was Ogbe's seventh DNP of the year.

Ogbe missed five straight games in January due to a groin injury, including the first meeting with Washington State at the Huntsman Center. It was not immediately clear if Ogbe had reaggravated his previous ailment or suffered a different injury.

The German native has averaged about 13 minutes in games that he's played, scoring 4.5 points and adding 1.5 rebounds per game while shooting 43 percent from the field. He started five games in Jordan Loveridge's absence

Ogbe also did not play against Arizona last Saturday.

For the most part, Utah has enjoyed good health this season. Loveridge missed seven games following knee surgery, but has since re-entered the starting lineup without problems. Dakarai Tucker missed four games with a broken rib. Jakob Poeltl missed one game with a sprained ankle.

Leaving on a jet plane

There's a saying after a win: "We'll take tonight to enjoy this, and get back to work tomorrow."

The Utes didn't even wait that long.

Hours after their game against the Cougars, they were on a charter plane to Seattle, skipping a night's rest in Pullman. The turnaround between Thursday's late tipoff and Saturday's 2:30 p.m. MT tip at Alaska Airlines Arena is one of the shortest refractory periods of the season, so Utah decided to get a head start on travel rather than squeeze a fitful night of sleep in before a Friday morning flight.

"After games you can't sleep anyway," Larry Krystkowiak said. "It's a pipe dream to ask our kids to go straight to bed. This will be like a NBA trip, jumping over to Seattle."

Peeking ahead

Utah's final regular season opponent didn't fare so well in its Thursday night duel with Colorado, dropping its 10th game in its last 11 contests, starting with its 77-56 loss to Utah in Salt Lake City.

The Huskies shot only 31 percent from the field, were out-rebounded and lost the turnover battle against the visiting Buffs. Washington has lost nine of 10 since cutting center Robert Upshaw from the team and is poised for the No. 11 seed in the upcoming Pac-12 tournament.

Twitter: @kylegoon