SALT LAKE CITY—Andy Ogide scored a career-high 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to power Colorado State past Utah 74-68 Saturday.
Ogide broke a tie game with a jumper and Greg Smith followed with a basket and two free throws in the final 1:31 to clinch the game for the Rams (15-6, 5-2 Mountain West), who won for the fourth time in their last five games.
Smith had 14 points and Adam Nigon added 11 to overcome the absence of Wes Eikmeier, CSU’s third-leading scorer, who missed the game with a strained foot tendon.
Will Clyburn scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half, while J.J. O’Brien and Josh Watkins had 11 each for Utah (10-11, 3-4).
Dorian Green made a jumper and Smith converted a three-point play on an acrobatic tip-in to give the Rams their largest margin at 64-53 with 11:01 to play.
The Utes climbed back behind pressure defense and the playmaking of Clyburn, who scored five points in a 15-4 run and fed David Foster for a layup that tied the game at 68-68 with 2:50 remaining. But the Utes didn’t score again and saw their three-game winning streak snapped.
Ogide, who is the top field goal percentage shooter in the conference, scored inside and out against the tallest center tandem in the conference, hitting 10 of 17 shots from the field. The 6-foot-9 center, who had only three 3-pointers all season, made 3 of 4 attempts beyond the arc. Ogide topped his previous career high of 24 points against UC-Davis on Nov. 13, 2009.
Coming into the game, Travis Franklin had scored more than 20 points in three straight games but was limited by foul trouble and scored just eight. Smith and Ogide, who passed the 1,000-point mark for his career during a 20-point first half, picked up the slack and kept the Rams on track for the best season in Tim Miles’ four years as coach.
The 1960-61 Utah basketball team that reached the Final Four of the NCAA tournament was honored at halftime, reminding fans how far these Utes have to go to get back to college basketball’s elite. The Utes’ only senior, Jay Watkins, is out indefinitely with a back injury and Utah had lost seven games in a row for the first time in more than 60 years before their modest winning streak.
