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Boulder, Colo. • It was familiar but not in the comforting way.

Sophomore Sedrick Barefield was smothered by three Colorado defenders after an inbounds pass. He turned for teammates, then seeing none, he turned for the ref.

Timeout.

In a perfect world, Utah would've found a way to break the press with 1 minute, 50 seconds left and holding a four-point lead. Similarly on the next play — another inbounds pass — junior Kyle Kuzma would've found a way to pass around the Buffs instead of calling a timeout to avoid a 5-second violation.

It's not a perfect world.

But Utah found ways to improve enough to pull out an 86-81 win over Colorado on the road. It was the Utes' last road win in more than a month.

One small step was good enough for coach Larry Krystkowiak, who had spent his Tuesday news conference airing frustrations.

The timeouts are "ones you can defend," Krystkowiak said. "Sedrick grew in that regard. He took a timeout. I'd rather have that happen than the alternative."

The Utes are well-acquainted with the alternative. Turnovers cost them big in the final 90 seconds in a loss at Oregon State. Free-throw shooting (68.2 percent, No. 238 nationally) or breakdowns in defense have hurt them in other games.

Utah wasn't bulletproof Thursday night, but areas where they've worked showed improvement. Krystkowiak said the themes of the week were sharing the ball and taking care of the ball, which correlates with how Utah got six players scoring eight or more points, three players with three assists each and only 10 turnovers after averaging 15 over the previous eight games.

Whereas Krystkowiak said last week he saw players "trying to win it on their own," the last three baskets of the Colorado game all were assisted: Lorenzo Bonam finding Kyle Kuzma out by the 3-point line; Barefield throwing through a double team for a Jayce Johnson dunk; David Collette getting a layup off a pass by Kuzma.

"I thought a little bit of adversity had built up," Krystkowiak said. "I thought maybe an Oregon State game, we were playing not to lose. You're protecting. I think our mindset changed where we realized we had to go out and make plays. The league isn't easy."

Is there a lot left to work on? Sure.

Krystkowiak called Utah's recent inability to stop leading scorers — Colorado's Derrick White had 31 points on the heels of Stevie Thompson scoring 31 — "troublesome." The press-breaker isn't polished. The Utes also could've stopped Colorado earlier if they had limited them from getting 12 offensive rebounds, which was harder with some of the foul trouble the team dealt with.

The other troubling subplot has been Utah's chemistry and togetherness. While they showed a better product on the court Thursday, an absence loomed large. Krystkowiak wouldn't answer questions about Devon Daniels' indefinite suspension, except that it's an "internal" issue and not a legal question. It must be at least a little unsettling that the freshman, who has shown plenty of promise, and his coach are not on the same page.

"I need to sit down and visit with him," Krystkowiak said. "We'll see where we're at."

But Utah showed against Colorado that it is capable of playing more under control, even as it doesn't control its destiny in a race with Cal for a top-four finish in the Pac-12.

It wasn't the court where Utah changed. Something different could be heard outside the visiting locker room door: Laughter, for the first time after a road game in weeks.

"It was big," Kuzma said. "We haven't been a really good road team this year. Closing out games has been a problem for us for the most part. But we held it down tonight. Good things happened for us."

kgoon@sltrib.com Twitter: @kylegoon —

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