FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Turns out, the Utah Utes had nothing to worry about.

Yeah, they were shorthanded and slumping, playing without suspended guard Luka Drca and having lost four of their last five games - as well as three straight on the road. But against the catastrophically overmatched, underinspired and cold-shooting Colorado State Rams, none of that mattered.

In a virtual replay of their victory over TCU last weekend, the Utes took off from the start - guard Carlon Brown stroked an outside jumper and his first college three-pointer, just to give you an idea how well everything was going - built a huge early lead amid a fusillade of errant CSU jumpers, and cruised to a 67-52 victory in front of 3,505 at

Moby Arena on Saturday night.

"I'm happy with the way my team responded to a tough home loss," coach Jim Boylen said. "We're thankful to get a win."

To put it mildly.

The Utes have already heard grumblings about their progress under Boylen, and knew that losing to the Rams - a team that had lost seven straight, 11 of 12 and has not beaten a Division I team since Dec. 5 - would drive the frustration to a new agonizing level.

But that never came close to happening. With the Rams clanking shot after shot in the first half - they missed 11 of their first 13 - and Brown playing probably the best basketball of his young career to make up for Drca's absence, the Utes surged to a 21-point lead within the first 15 1/2 minutes. Brown set career highs with 16 points and seven rebounds, and helped keep the Rams from mounting a challenge.

"I asked our guys, 'Let's say you're married with two kids, and you spent $55 on admission and some concessions,' " a furious CSU coach Tim Miles said. " 'Would you come back?' I was embarrassed."

The Utes allowed just 13 points in the first half - same as TCU - and even scoring just two points in the first six minutes of a disjointed second half was not enough of a drought to allow the Rams to threaten. Sure, they cut the lead to 11 midway through the second half, but that lasted only a few seconds before Tyler Kepkay buried a three-pointer and the Utes rebuilt their huge advantage.

"We pretty much won the game in the beginning," Kepkay said, "just coming out and running it down their throat."

Of course, it helped that the Rams are so vastly undermanned.

Miles is working with only eight scholarship players and one senior - center Stuart Creason, who's out with a foot injury. Otherwise, the team is a patch-work collection of transfers, freshmen and walk-ons who couldn't come close matching the Utes in any area.

Guard Marcus Walker scored 23 points to lead the Rams, but two other starters failed to score and CSU hit just 3 of 18 three-pointers. The Utes also owned the rebounding battle for once - they had been outrebounded in four straight games - and picked up 13 points from guard Johnnie Bryant and 11 from Kepkay.

mcl@sltrib.com

Utah 67, Colorado State 52

FG FT Reb

UTAH Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Green 36 2-7 0-0 2-6 2 4 5

Nevill 25 1-6 6-8 2-5 3 2 8

Borha 20 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 2 3

Brown 25 6-10 3-6 1-7 0 1 16

Kepkay 36 3-5 4-4 0-4 4 2 11

Bryant 32 5-9 0-0 0-1 0 0 13

Grant 5 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 2 0

Smith 1 0-0 1-2 0-0 0 0 1

Tillie 16 3-3 2-2 1-3 2 3 8

Brennan 1 0-0 1-2 0-0 0 0 1

Downie 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Grim 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2

TOTALS 200 22-45 16-22 7-28 14 16 67

Percentages: FG .489, FT .727. Three-Point Goals: 7-18, .389 (Bryant 3-4, Green 1-6, Borha 1-2, Kepkay 1-3, Brown 1-3). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocks: 3 (Green 1, Brown 2). Turnovers: 11 (Green 3, Borha 4, Kepkay 2, Nevill 1, Tillie 1). Steals: 5 (Green 1, Kepkay 1, Grim 1, Nevill 2).

FG FT Reb

CSU Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

McFarland 25 1-5 0-0 1-1 0 2 2

Aguilar 23 3-6 0-0 3-7 1 4 6

Walker 31 9-16 3-3 0-5 0 3 23

Nigon 21 0-1 0-0 0-3 0 1 0

Gardner 28 0-5 0-0 0-2 0 0 0

Clayman 26 3-7 1-2 1-2 0 3 8

Cohen 5 1-1 1-2 1-1 1 0 3

Simmons 14 2-3 1-1 0-0 1 1 5

Woodard 22 1-4 3-3 0-0 2 4 5

Van Tassel 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

McGinley 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Totals 200 20-49 9-11 6-22 5 19 52

Percentages: FG .408, FT .818. Three-Point Goals: 3-18, .167 (Clayman 1-3, Gardner 0-2, Walker 2-6, McFarland 0-4, Woodard 0-1, McGinley 0-1, Simmons 0-1). Team Rebounds: 1. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 12 (Clayman 3, Walker 1, McFarland 2, Nigon 1, Woodard 4, Simmons 1).

Utah 33 34-67

Wyoming 13 39-52

A - 3,505. Officials: Shawn Lehigh, Doran Gotschall, Ken Nielson.