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Pullman, Wash. • They entered Beasley Coliseum without their leading scorer. By halftime, the Runnin' Utes led by 19 points.
Utah replaced David Collette with aggressive drives by Lorenzo Bonam, splashy mid-range shots by Kyle Kuzma and post-ups by Jayce Johnson. And in a resounding 88-47 takedown of Washington State on the road, it was hard to notice Collette's absence.
Improving to 12-5 overall and 4-2 in Pac-12 play, Utah showed even while incomplete, it is capable of road dominance. And that, coach Larry Krystkowiak said, was the point — not to make to the world, but to the team themselves.
"A lot of people are ready to make excuses if it doesn't go well: 'Hey, they had a tough bounce back; it's an ice storm; Dave's not here,' " he said. "There's a lot of excuses built in. I think it says a lot about the character of the guys. We kind of hit a nerve."
The players' response to the challenge showed immediately: They punished the Cougars with unapologetic drives to the rim. With only one first-half 3-pointer, Utah still built a massive lead while shooting 62 percent in the first 20 minutes.
The 41-point road win was the sixth straight in the series against the Cougars, and tied the largest margin of victory in the series — Utah won by the same score last season at the Huntsman Center.
One of the team's two seniors, Bonam burned Washington State's defense from the start, hitting five of his first six shots shots (along with two free throws) to rack up 13 points in the first nine minutes of the game.
"We need him to get up and down," Kuzma said "He's one of the best [point guards] in the league when he puts his mind to it."
Bonam's aggressiveness helped spur Utah early, and Kuzma added to the lead by scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, reaching a double-double (14-10) in the first half alone. Freshman center Johnson, making his fifth start of the year in Collette's stead, had 9 points and 5 rebounds, helping anchor Utah's staunch zone scheme on defense. Utah shot 58 percent from the field, the fourth straight game of 54 percent or higher.
In a game that featured two airballed corner 3-point attempts, the Cougars' offense hit a wall against Utah's zone, but was also stifled by mistakes. In the first three minutes of the game, Washington State turned the ball over four times, and had twice as many giveaways as Utah (8-4) at halftime. In the end, Washington State had 13 turnovers to Utah's 9.
The Cougars shot only 33 percent overall, 22 percent in the second half.
"It continues to get better for us, and we added a couple of wrinkles," Krystkowiak said of Utah's defense. "Washington State is playing with a lot of confidence right now. From the film we watched, that has a lot of correlation with playing man. ... So [zone] is what we decided and it worked pretty well."
Washington State's one moment of resistance came after halftime: Malachi Flynn keyed a 9-2 run out of the break, including a contested floater and a 3-pointer. But Utah answered with a 10-0 run of its own in a span of 1:44-second span.
The Utes beat the Cougars into submission in plenty of ways: shooting more than twice as many free throws; grabbing seven steals to Washington State's one; hitting eight 3-pointers to WSU's two. Sedrick Barefield and Gabe Bealer had 10 points apiece to lead Utah's 39-point effort off the bench — the Cougars had four bench points. The Utes also had a 45-26 rebounding edge.
"If you're going to lose your center, you've got a chance in [Wednesday's] game as opposed to some of the games where you need that body," Krystkowiak said. "[Josh] Hawkinson's a load rebounding-wise, but team-wise they're in the 300s or something in terms of rebounds. It would've been a shame had we not had a significant rebounding advantage in this game. But we managed to do that."
And much, much more.
Twitter: @kylegoon —
Storylines
R Utes win sixth straight against Washington State, tie largest margin of victory in series.
• Kyle Kuzma has 19 points, 11 rebounds for 10th double-double of the season.
• Jayce Johnson has 9 points and 5 rebounds starting at center.