San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bears remain winless on the road as 1sthalf shooting droughts hurt
SALT LAKE CITY — Finding his shot has largely been a chore for Timmy Allen since the start of Pac12 play. Allen took a step forward on resolving those shooting struggles. The sophomore forward scored 21 points on 8of16 shooting to help Utah beat Cal 6045 on Saturday night. Allen had his first 20point game since the Utes’ Pac12 opener against Oregon State. Once he found a rhythm, Allen accounted for 14 of Utah’s final 20 points.
Allen had his first performance of shooting 50% or better from the field since Utah’s win over Kentucky in December.
“Man, I’ve been missing shots I should make and I still did today, truthfully,” Allen said. “But it feels cool. I’ve got a lot more work to do.”
Eight players scored to help the Utes (149, 56) beat the
Bears for the third straight time in the series.
Matt Bradley scored 13 points
and collected seven rebounds to lead Cal (1013, 46). The Bears remain winless in seven true road games this season.
“We just played like a tired team,” Cal coach Mark Fox said. “They were the aggressors and we didn’t finish enough plays. You have to score when you’re on the road and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Utah built a doubledigit lead multiple times in the first half after taking advantage of a pair of prolonged shooting droughts by Cal.
The Bears went 3½ minutes without scoring a basket, allowing Utah to rip off a 122 run and take a 176 lead.
Paris Austin keyed a temporary surge with backtoback layups. Kareem Story followed with a 3pointer that made it 1714. Then Cal went cold again, failing to score over a fourminute stretch.
Utah did not waste the opportunity to pull away again. Alfonso Plummer made backtoback baskets and Riley Battin buried a 3pointer to extend Utah’s lead to 2414..