Utah basketball: Defense dominates as Utes come up short against Colorado, 55-48

SALT LAKE CITY — Simply put, it was another one of those games for the Utah Utes. Another, in a series dating back to last week's narrow setbacks at Arizona State and Arizona, where the Utes earned an "A" for their effort but an "L" for their performance.

Colorado used a late rally to hand Utah its seventh consecutive setback, 55-48 Saturday afternoon in the Huntsman Center.

"The moral victories are kind of wearing on us," Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak acknowledged after the Utes fell 5-21 overall and 2-12 in Pac-12 play.

Utah had chances to take a late lead after rallying from a nine-point deficit to tie the game on three occasions in the final 6:25. The final deadlock was at 44-44 after a layup by Cedric Martin with 4:50 remaining. After that, the Utes missed eight of their final nine shots from the field at the Buffaloes pulled away for the victory.

Krystkowiak noted that it came down to a couple of plays here and there.

"We put ourselves into a position and battled back," he said while adding that he was "super proud" of his team. "There is absolutely no quit in them. They're continuing to get better and fighting and that means a lot to this university and to our staff."

Repeatedly coming up short, though, is getting old.

"It's another one that we were in at the end and it just got away from us. We're proud of our team's effort but at the end of the game it doesn't really fix the feeling of losing," said center Jason Washburn, who finished with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. "Losing is losing. But once again, you know, I'm proud of our team. We hustled out there, and we really showed some heart."

The proof may be found in the final score. When the teams met Dec. 31 in Boulder, Colorado handed Utah a 73-33 whipping.

From that standpoint, things were much better this time around. It was competitive from the very start.

So competitive, in fact, that it was scoreless until Washburn scored with 14:34 to go in the first half. Before the shot dropped, the teams were a combined 0-for-11 from the field with five turnovers.

"It was two teams, I thought, that had each other scouted pretty well and took each other's strengths away," Krystkowiak said. "Maybe not the best from a fan's perspective but defense wins a lot of games and championships. I thought it was kind of neat."