Utah Drops Another Halftime Lead, Falling To Colorado

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah men’s basketball team dropped another halftime lead, falling to Colorado 65-58 at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Monday afternoon.

Utah basketball had a 37-27 halftime lead over Colorado before the Buffs outscored the Utes 38-21 in the second half. In the Utes’ last game against Oregon, they had a 10-point lead before losing by six points to the Ducks.

Timmy Allen led all scorers with 19 points, while pulling down 5 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists. He shot 9-for-16 from the field and just 1-of-5 from the free throw line. Alfonso Plummer added 12 points off the bench. Branden Carlson chipped in 8 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks in his second game coming off the bench.

For Colorado, D’Shawn Schwartz recorded a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds. Jabari Walker also notched a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards.

The Buffaloes outrebounded the Utes 49-31.

FINAL@UtahMBB has lost four straight.#GoUtes #Pac12Hoops

📸: @utahathletics pic.twitter.com/T9dyjk9wVD

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 12, 2021

Utah Comes Out Strong In First Half Against Colorado

Both sides of the ball were clicking for Utah in the first 4 minutes as they jumped out to an 8-3 lead. The Utes were getting contributions from their bench with Branden Carlson, Ian Martinez and Alfonso Plummer.

At the halftime break, Utah shot 54 percent (17-31) from the field. Colorado was held to 27 percent shooting (9-33) from the floor.

The Buffaloes went 5-of-8 from the foul line as the Utes kept them off of the charity stripe.

Second Half Woes For Utah In Loss To Colorado

When Utah lost their 10-point lead at halftime against Oregon, head coach Larry Krystkowiak pointed to turnovers as the reason for the collapse. It was a similar outcome but a different reason in the loss to Colorado.

“I thought the other night was turnovers and tonight was rebounding,” Krystkowiak said after the game. “We got pounded on the glass, we got him to miss. The rebounds happen a lot. Miss shots happen a lot. We cleaned it up for Oregon, but this is a big physical team and they pounded us. That was super costly.”

Another stat that led to the loss for Utah was going 0-for-7 from the free throw line in the second half. Colorado made 13 of their 16 free throw attempts in the final 20 minutes.

Final. pic.twitter.com/eFLwUyFEgL

— Utah Basketball🏀 (w/ 😷) (@UtahMBB) January 12, 2021

The Runnin’ Utes dropped their record to 4-5 overall and 1-4 in Pac-12 play. They will return to the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Thursday, January 14 to face the Stanford Cardinal. Tip-off is at 3 p.m. MST on ESPNU.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.