STANFORD, California — As they walked past each other from their locker room to various postgame interviews in the bowels of Maples Pavilion Saturday afternoon after holding off Stanford 71-66, the Runnin’ Utes paused often to wish each other and reporters a happy new year.
And why not?
Coach Craig Smith’s team has already matched last season’s win total, both overall and in Pac-12 play. The year ahead is looking rosy, and not just for the school’s football team, which plays in the Rose Bowl on Monday.
“It kinda felt like a 15-round fight and at round 12 our legs were getting a little wobbly. But we were able to stay on our feet and stay connected and make enough plays late.” — Utah basketball coach Craig Smith
If you haven’t already, or if those losses to BYU and TCU caused you to re-think your spot on the bandwagon, think again. These Runnin’ Utes (4-0, 11-4) seem to have something special going, particularly on defense.
After Saturday’s second-straight road sweep of the Bay Area schools — the Utes pummeled Cal 58-43 on Thursday — Utah is 3-0 on the road in conference play for the first time since the 2004-05 season in the Mountain West. That home upset of then-No. 4 Arizona is looking less and less fluky by the passing week.
And with the mediocre, or worse, Oregon schools coming to the Huntsman Center next week, the Utes could very well be 6-0 in league play heading into that Jan. 12 showdown at No. 11 UCLA.
So here’s a New Year’s Eve toast to the Utes, who won another of those grinder conference games on the road that star center Branden Carlson said “wasn’t pretty” but counts as a ‘W’ nonetheless. These types of wins often eluded Utah last year when it won just four league contests.
Lazar Stefanovic scored a game-high 20 points on just seven shots (6 of 7 from the field, 5 of 6 from free-throw line) and Carlson added 18 points while becoming the 41st Ute to surpass the 1,000-point scoring plateau. The South Jordan product now has 1,002 points in his fourth season as a Ute.
Utah won despite getting 24 fewer shots off than the Cardinal (64-40), partly because the Utes turned it over 16 times and the Cardinal just six times, but also because Stanford got nine offensive rebounds and Utah just one.
Stanford has one of the tallest teams in the country, so the advantage on the offensive glass could be expected. That Utah will play clamp-down defense can also be expected, and the Utes were at it again Saturday — until the final eight or so minutes.
After Carlson’s jumper gave Utah a 51-35 lead with 8:42 left and it appeared the Utes could start their celebrating well before midnight, Stanford (0-4, 5-9) found its shooting touch. Spencer Jones, in his own right a 1,000-point career scorer, hit back-to-back triples. Then Isa Silva hit one, and suddenly it was a game.
“That felt like three different games in one tonight,” Smith said. “You had the first half, which was kind of a little bit ugly. It was hard to score.”
It wasn’t the first 10 or so minutes of the second half, as Stefanovic and Gabe Madsen heated up and the Utes played as well offensively as they have in quite awhile.
From the four-minute mark to the two-minute mark, the Cardinal scored on six straight possessions — Max Murrell hit a pair of 3s off the bench, rather unexpectedly — and a Murrell layup brought the home team to within two, 62-60.
“You gotta give them credit,” Smith said. “Sometimes you have to (ask) if we screwed up. We didn’t. … I just felt like they just played with tremendous competitive spirit and will to fight back. They were just raining in 3s from everywhere, it felt like.”
Utah closed it out at the free-throw line, however. Madsen made a pair. Then Stefanovic came up with a steal — Stanford’s sixth turnover — and subsequently made four straight free throws. Madsen’s two free throws with 12.1 seconds left sealed the deal. The Utes finished 19 of 23 from the stripe.
“It kinda felt like a 15-round fight and at round 12 our legs were getting a little wobbly,” Smith said. “But we were able to stay on our feet and stay connected and make enough plays late.”
While Utah’s defense once again traveled — the Utes held Cal to 34.1% shooting Thursday — across the San Francisco Bay, it was that free-throw shooting prowess and offensive efficiency that carried the final day of 2022 for a program that went 4-16 in Pac-12 play last year, 11-20 overall.
The Utes shot 57%, making the most of those 40 attempts. They were 6 of 14 from 3-point range, with Stefanovic going 3 of 3 and Madsen 2 of 6. Freshman Wilguens Exacte also made one, after shining Thursday, and continued to earn more minutes.
“I don’t always mention individuals, but I thought (Stefanovic) really controlled the game tonight,” Smith said. “He played with amazing poise and confidence and he was playing slow to fast and just made the right reads. Seven shot attempts, 20 points. I thought he really, really anchored us tonight.”
Senior Marco Anthony added 10 points and three rebounds before fouling out, and helped contain Jones, who finished with 16 after scoring 25 Thursday in Stanford’s 73-70 loss to Colorado.
“This team has taken pride in having our identity be on the defensive end,” Anthony said. “So we know that at the end of the day defense wins championships, and that is what we have to do to win.”
And make sure this new year starts out a lot better than last year’s did.