Utah basketball: Utes prepare for regular season finale

By Bill Oram The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: March 3, 2012 3:20 pm
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Eugene, Ore. • A regular season that has been far from regular ends today.

Utah will attempt to win a road game for the first time since Feb. 19, 2011, when it plays at Oregon at Matthew Knight Arena at 4 p.m. (MT).

The Ducks (21-8, 12-5 Pac-12) are coming off a 90-81 win over Colorado on Thursday and needs to beat the Utes to maintain third place in the Pac-12.

The Utes have known for more than a week that they would finish 11th in the Pac-12, and today their matchup has become more clear. If Colorado beats Oregon State in Corvallis, the Utes will play UCLA. If Oregon State wins, the Buffs will fall to sixth in the Pac-12 and play the Utes.

Either way, the Utes will play at 9:30 p.m. (MT) on Wednesday at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

While Utah's final standing won't be impacted by the outcome here in Eugene, the Utes very much want to close the regular season with an impressive road win and some momentum going into the tournament.

"For us, winning's always the goal," Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said. "But I think there's a lot of games within the game, the things we're taking a lot of pride in doing, we're trying to execute we're trying to play hard."

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boram@sltrib.com

Twitter: @oramb

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