Drisdom leads Utes over Rams

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — It may just be a coincidence, but Tim Drisdom's scoring has taken off over the past four games, ever since Rick Majerus "retired" as the Utah basketball coach.

After scoring in double figures just once over the first 20 games, Drisdom has done it three times over the past four games. Saturday night, the sophomore point guard had a career-best game, by scoring 24 points and leading the Utes to an 80-70 victory over Colorado State at Moby Arena.

The victory pushed the Utes to 7-2 in Mountain West Conference play on the heels of Air Force (8-1) as they improved to 19-5 on the season. The Rams fell to 3-6 and 11-11.

Nick Jacobson added 22 and Andrew Bogut collected his 12th double-double of the year with 16 points and 10 rebounds. But the man everyone was talking about afterward was Drisdom.

Jacobson, especially, is happy to see Drisdom take some of the scoring load since he often attracts two defenders as the Utes' leading scorer.

"I was kind of having fun with him after the game, saying, 'It's about time,' " Jacobson said. "You've got to hand it to Drisdom. He's capable of doing that. It opens up our whole offense and really helps our team."

Jacobson said Drisdom is feeling more comfortable on offense, but says he was "getting to that point" even before Majerus left. But it's obvious that Drisdom hasn't been looking over his shoulder as much toward the bench the last few games.

"The coaches tell me to look for my shot if it's there," said Drisdom. "A couple of times tonight they completely fell asleep so I took advantage of every opportunity."

"We want everybody on the floor to be a threat," said Utah interim coach Kerry Rupp, who improved to 4-0 since taking over for Majerus. "They tried to pack it in, so (Drsidom) was smart enough to hit the threes."

After Utah took a 34-26 halftime lead, the Rams came out strong to cut the lead to five at 42-37. But Jacobson made a big play, just 10 seconds after the Rams' basket, hitting a 3-point shot from the top of the key, getting fouled and turning it into a four-point play.

That sparked a 13-3 run as Bryant Markson made a key tip (that was wrongly credited to Tim Frost) and Bogut made a follow shot. After a three-point play by CSU, Drisdom hit a fadeaway jumper in the lane as the shot clock was nearing zero and was fouled and his three-point play made it 54-40.