After win over Ole Miss, Utah to take on hometown UNLV at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas

Las Vegas • There haven’t been many sure bets so far this season when it comes to defending the Utah men’s basketball team.

Typically an off night by one player would figure to tip the odds in the opponent’s favor as, but the Utes have proven exceedingly frustrating in that regard. Senior guard Justin Bibbins became the fourth player to lead the Utes in scoring in their first four games with his 23-point outburst that lifted the Utes (4-0) past Ole Miss late Monday night.

Bibbins’ performance helped set up a late-night clash with the hometown squad UNLV (4-0) in Wednesday’s championship game of the heavyweight division of the MGM Resorts Main Event at 10:30 p.m. (MT) in T-Mobile Arena. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

“That’s what’s special about our team,” Bibbins said. “Anybody can go off on any night, so I just knew my night was coming soon and stayed patient.”

Bibbins, a 5-foot-8 graduate transfer who played his first three seasons at Long Beach State, came into this week averaging 9.0 points through the first three games. While he had made 53 percent of his shots overall, he’d made only 2 of 8 from behind the 3-point line.

Bibbins, a 38-percent 3-point shooter during his career at Long Beach State, said he worked with associate head coach Tommy Connor to “tweak” his shooting mechanics and build some confidence.

Bibbins shot 7 of 11 against Ole Miss, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range. He made all five of his 3-pointers after halftime and scored 21 second-half points. His 23 points are the most scored in a game by any Ute this season, surpassing Sedrick Barefield’s 22 points in the season opener.

“It’s huge for him,” Utes senior center David Collette said about Bibbins. “We’ve been waiting for him to go off. We know he’s capable, so I think after this game that will give him that little boost, especially on a road game when he did it. And he’ll get going and have those types of games from here on out.”

Collette leads the team in points per game (13.8), but hasn’t had a 20-point game this season. Gabe Bealer, Barefield and now Bibbins each have scored 20 points or more on separate nights. The Utes have four players averaging between 13.8 and 11.8 points.

Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak embraces diversity in scoring, particularly when the shots come through the flow of the offense. He could be heard yelling to his team during an offensive possession “No heroes” at one point during a tightly contested second half Monday.

Bibbins handled a bulk of the ball handling duties down the stretch as Barefield, who scored 12 points, committed a game-high seven turnovers in 27 minutes.

“It’s the essence of a team,” Krystkowiak said. “We talk about in the game of basketball it’s a next-play mentality. If you make a mistake, you try to win the next one. Same thing overall with the game. [Bibbins] stepped up tonight. Other guys have stepped up, and I would like to have a team that’s difficult to figure out who you need to stop.

“If you have enough weapons and guys playing together [that’s tough to stop.] If you have four or five guys in double figures, I’ve always thought that’s harder to scout for than if you can take away one guy.”

The Utes will face UNLV on a short turnaround. UNLV won in a 95-68 rout against Rice in the early game Monday evening. No player for UNLV played more than 29 minutes in that game as they’d built a 27-point advantage by halftime.

“I know they’re high-powered and virtually have a home game with some enthusiasm in the building,” Krystkowiak said about UNLV. “So it’s going to be a heck of challenge.”