Utah is seemingly back on track on defense ahead of hosting Colorado in Salt Lake City on Saturday.

The Utes (16-9, 9-5 Pac-12) snapped a two-game losing streak with a 61-46 victory over Cal on Sunday. Utah limited the Bears to 33.9 percent shooting from the floor, 23.5 percent (4 of 17) from 3-point range.

“I love how we guarded,” Utah coach Craig Smith said postgame. “I felt like we really, really guarded tonight and truly got back to who we are and what we are.”

The Utes rank among the nation’s leaders in scoring defense at 61.8 points per game, but their previous two foes had averaged 73 points.

Jaxon Brenchley gave Utah a rare lift off the bench, scoring a season-high 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting in 26 minutes. Heading into the game, Brenchley had appeared in 11 contests this season and totaled just four points.

Brenchley rallied the Utes from an early 18-11 deficit. Once Utah got ahead, it stayed ahead by limiting the Bears to 28.6 percent shooting from the floor in the second half.

The Utes, meanwhile, made 10 of 31 shots (32.3 percent) from 3-point range for the game. For the first time all season, Utah has made at least 10 treys in back-to-back contests.

Colorado also generated some positive momentum ahead of the rivalry clash by dispatching Stanford 84-62 on Sunday. Tristan da Silva scored 25 points and KJ Simpson added 21 points to power the Buffaloes past the Cardinal.

Colorado (14-11, 6-8) has rattled off back-to-back wins after a stretch of five losses in six games.

da Silva, who has scored at least 20 points in five straight games, shot 9 of 14 from the field against Stanford. His effort helped the Buffaloes break open the game with a 16-0 run to start the second half.

The Cardinal had tied it up 39-39 at halftime, but they missed their first 10 field-goal attempts after halftime.

“Tristan is not a selfish guy. He’s a team guy,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “But he knows we need him to score, and our players know we need him to score. He’s just so steady out there.”

This is the first of two games between the teams this season. They will square off again on March 4 in Boulder, Colo., to conclude Pac-12 regular-season play.

–Field Level Media

Just when it appeared No. 16 Gonzaga’s streak of 10 consecutive West Coast Conference regular-season titles was about to end, the Bulldogs received a lifeline.

Gonzaga defeated San Francisco 99-81 Thursday night, while No. 15 Saint Mary’s lost 78-74 in overtime at Loyola Marymount.

That pulled the Bulldogs within a game of the first-place Gaels, the team Gonzaga will host in the conference finale on Feb. 25.

But first, the Bulldogs (20-5, 9-2 WCC) must deal with BYU (16-11, 6-6) on Saturday night in Spokane, Wash.

Rasir Bolton led four Gonzaga double-figures scorers on Thursday with 23 points and added six assists. Bolton made a putback with seven seconds remaining in a 77-75 victory at San Francisco on Jan. 5.

“I knew I had a big game down there last time,” Bolton said, “so I came out a little more aggressive, and it worked out for me.”

Two-time All-American Drew Timme scored 20 of his 21 points in the first half on Thursday as the Zags built a 60-40 halftime lead.

Timme, who is averaging a career-best 21.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game, was named Thursday as one of 10 candidates for the Karl Malone Award, presented annually to the top power forward in college basketball. Timme, also one of 30 players on the Naismith Player of the Year midseason team, won the Malone award in 2021.

“I think this team just does a good job of taking what they give us,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I think the best thing we did (Thursday), especially in the first half, was we took great care of the ball. … So, I think that’s probably one of the better things in lieu of where we were at earlier in the year. We had a variety of guys come in and really, really help us.”

Anton Watson added 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, and Hunter Sallis scored 13 for the Bulldogs, who reached the 20-win plateau for the 26th consecutive season, the second-longest current streak in NCAA Division I behind Kansas’ 32 in a row.

“I think it’s just getting the offense flowing and not getting stagnant,” Watson said. “You can tell they were getting tired on the defensive end, and once we play with that pace, it’s pretty hard to keep up with. I think that led to a lot of open shots.”

Gonzaga has won its past six meetings with BYU, including a 75-74 victory on Jan. 12 in Provo, Utah, when Julian Strawther made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 9.8 seconds remaining.

The Cougars are coming off a 92-80 loss to last-place Pepperdine on Thursday in Malibu, Calif.

“It was a continual barrage of some defensive breakdowns,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “We could never right the ship that way. Pepperdine is a talented young team. We knew they’re super capable scoring the ball, and we could not find answers on the defensive end.”

Fousseyni Traore scored a team-high 19 points for BYU, shooting 7 of 10 from the field, and he grabbed six rebounds.

The Cougars fell to 2-4 in WCC road games.

“It’s understanding the mentality, and it comes with experience. Right now, we’re having a tough time winning outside our building,” Pope said. “We have a young group. We don’t have a lot of guys that know what it takes to win on the road.”

–Field Level Media

The Wisconsin Badgers look to win consecutive games for the first time since early January as they travel to Lincoln, Neb., to take on the Cornhuskers on Saturday afternoon.

The Badgers took down Penn State in State College 79-74 in overtime on Wednesday night thanks to 19 points from Chucky Hepburn, 18 points from Connor Essegian and an all-around performance from Tyler Wahl with 16 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

“He was aggressive, that’s the best step forward for him since his return. Nobody I’m happier for than Tyler,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said. “He’s been battling like crazy and it’s bothered him when he couldn’t perform how he wanted to perform.”

Wisconsin (14-9, 6-7 Big Ten) is trying to finally gain some momentum as, prior to the Penn State game, the Badgers had lost seven of their previous nine games. They’ve plummeted to 10th place in the Big Ten standings.

Nebraska (11-14, 4-10) is coming off a 93-72 loss at Michigan. Keisei Tominaga led the way for the Cornhuskers with 24 points while Derrick Walker had 15 points and eight assists.

Michigan’s offense was just too much for Nebraska, shooting 68 percent from the field in the first half and 57.6 percent from the field for the whole game, including 53.8 percent from beyond the arc.

“It was all about the start,” Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg said on the KLIN postgame radio show after the loss. “We just didn’t come out with the edge that we needed. We fought them after that, but unfortunately, it was just too late.”

This is the one and only matchup between these Big Ten rivals this season. Wisconsin leads the all-time series 21-15 and had won seven in a row against the Cornhuskers prior to a one-point Nebraska upset in their last meeting a season ago in Madison.

–Field Level Media

New Mexico State suspended its men’s basketball program “until further notice” amid an investigation into potential violations of university policy, the school announced in a statement Friday night.

The program’s coaching staff was placed on paid administrative leave while the allegations, which were not detailed, are investigated.

New Mexico State had a game scheduled for Saturday against WAC opponent California Baptist. That game won’t be played, nor will other games as long as the program is suspended.

Per the university’s statement, the latest allegations are not related to an incident that took place in the early hours of Nov. 19 when the Aggies had traveled to play New Mexico. New Mexico State player Mike Peake was involved in a shootout with a New Mexico student on UNM’s Albuquerque campus, according to police.

Per the police report, four New Mexico students lured Peake to campus, and he was shot in the leg in an altercation. Peake reportedly had brought a gun with him and fired back, killing a 19-year-old student.

Peake was indefinitely suspended from the team during an investigation.

New Mexico State’s head coach is Greg Heiar, hired just last March to replace Chris Jans, who departed for the same role at Mississippi State.

The Aggies are in last place in the WAC with a 2-10 league record, 9-15 overall.

–Field Level Media

Jayden Taylor scored 20 points and Eric Hunter Jr. scored the winning points thanks to a goaltend as the Butler Bulldogs pulled off an upset on their home court over Big East rival No. 13 Xavier 69-67.

Taylor scored nine of his 20 points from the free throw line while also leading the team with six rebounds. Manny Bates was a very efficient 9-for-10 from the field with 19 points and Hunter Jr. finished with seven points, four rebounds and four assists.

For the Musketeers, who were once again playing without Zach Freemantle, Colby Jones led the way with 17 along with eight boards. Jack Nunge scored 14, Adam Kunkel added 13 and Souley Boum scored 12.

In the first half, Butler held Xavier to their lowest first half point total of the season, going into the break leading 35-21. Xavier, who came into the game shooting over 50% from the field as a team, shot just 8-for-26 from the field in the half while Butler made nine of their first 11 shots.

Bates led the charge for Butler at halftime with 12 points alongside Lukosius’ 10. Nunge led the Musketeers with just six points.

The Bulldogs improved to 12-0 this season in games in which they led at halftime.

Kunkel brought the Musketeers deficit down to just three with 2:05 to go with a layup. Xavier then brought the deficit to just two before Taylor finished a layup plus a foul to push the Butler lead back to five.

Following the and-one, Xavier got the game back within two and Jack Nunge came up with a huge steal. However, he attempted to call a timeout when the Musketeers did not have any left, which earned him a technical foul and two free throws for Butler, which Taylor knocked down.

After Taylor then made one out of two at the line his next trip, he intentionally fouled Boum with Butler up just two. Boum made both from the line to tie the game.

Butler then got the lead back on a dunk attempt from Hunter that was swatted away due to a goaltend call. After review, the call was upheld and Butler was able to hang on as Boum missed a half court attempt, leading the Butler students to storm the court.

it was Butler’s first win over an AP top 20 team since Feb. 12 of last year vs. Marquette. Xavier now falls into a tie with Marquette at 11-3 atop the Big East conference standings as Marquette is set to travel to Georgetown to take on the Hoyas on Saturday.

–Field Level Media

When Big East rivals Seton Hall and Villanova face off Saturday night in Philadelphia, it will mark the first meeting between the programs’ new head coaches, Shaheen Holloway and Kyle Neptune.

Both young coaches have encountered their share of trials and tribulations in Year One, but while Villanova has begun to regain its footing, Seton Hall has the greater chance of the two to play some postseason basketball.

The Pirates (15-10, 8-6 Big East) turned around a 1-4 league start by winning seven of eight games. That stretch was dented Wednesday in a 75-62 home loss to No. 23 Creighton.

Seton Hall shot 50 percent in the first half and held a six-point lead with 16:49 to play, but Creighton shot an unstoppable 13-for-20 in the second half to pull away. The Pirates dropped to 0-6 against the top four teams in the Big East and missed out on a chance at a Quadrant 1 win for their resume.

“It’s frustrating because it’s a game that I thought we had, a game that we needed at home,” Holloway told reporters. “Like I said, for 34 minutes, I thought we played as well as we’ve played in a long time, then the last six minutes, we lost our mind and stopped doing the little things, stopped being disciplined on offense and defense, and it cost us.”

Villanova (11-13, 5-8) stopped its second three-game slide of the conference schedule by handling DePaul 81-65 on Wednesday night, avenging a loss earlier this season.

All five starters scored in double figures, led by Caleb Daniels’ 18 points. Justin Moore — the second-leading scorer of last year’s Final Four team who only made his season debut Jan. 29 after recovering from an Achilles tear — had a season-high 17 points in his fourth outing.

Villanova ranks last in the Big East in assists with 11.2 per game, but those totals have started to rise, with the Wildcats dishing 11 or more in three of the past four games.

“They really share the ball,” Neptune said earlier this month. “They’ve got really good team chemistry. They’ve been playing pretty much the same style. As you grow throughout the season, some teams get much better at what they do, and they’ve gotten much better at what they do.”

Villanova owns an 81-42 all-time series lead and swept the Pirates last season with identical 73-67 victories. The Wildcats have won five straight, with Seton Hall’s last victory coming at the Wells Fargo Center in February 2020.

–Field Level Media

Texas A&M has an opportunity to sweep LSU for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign when the two teams square off Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La.

The Aggies defeated LSU 69-56 on Jan. 7 and are riding the high of their best start through 11 games in SEC play since joining the conference. Texas A&M is 17-7 overall and 9-2 in the league.

It’s the opposite for the Tigers (12-12, 1-10), who have lost 11 consecutive games and are seeking their first win of 2023. Their last victory was Dec. 28 against Arkansas.

LSU is coming off a 64-53 loss to Mississippi State on the road Wednesday night. Coach Matt McMahon saw a few encouraging signs for his team despite another tough night in the gym.

“I thought our half-court defense in the first half was fantastic,” McMahon told reporters. “We were flying around, guys were in gaps. After they hit the two threes to start the game, (Mississippi State) didn’t make another three the rest of the half. The second half, however, our half-court defense really let us down.”

The Tigers are holding opponents to an average of 68.8 points per game but are scoring just 66.5 per outing and have put up 70 or more points only twice during their current losing streak. KJ Williams leads LSU in scoring at 16.5 points per game and has also been a force defensively, blocking 25 shots.

Texas A&M is coming off an 83-78 win over Auburn and has won its last two games. Julius Marble scored a career-high 20 points in the game and is averaging 10 points per outing.

Marble’s shots couldn’t have come at a better time as his personal 6-0 run helped turn a two-point deficit into a four-point edge with two minutes to play.

“I was just seeing a bigger hoop, I guess,” Marble told reporters. “I knew we needed those shots and I knew I could make them. I just had to do my job. I credit the guys for getting me in the right spots.”

Wade Taylor IV is the top scorer for the Aggies at 14.9 points per game.

–Field Level Media

Arizona State will be out to build more momentum for a late-season push when it faces host Cal on Saturday in Berkley, Calif.

The Sun Devils (17-8, 8-6 Pac-12) rallied for a 69-65 victory at Stanford on Thursday, but it was just their second win in their last seven games since dropping a showdown game against UCLA on Jan. 19 that was a battle for first place at the time.

Arizona State is nowhere near such a lofty perch now, but it still has a 20-win season in its sights despite the fact that a pair of top-10 teams remain on their schedule in Arizona and UCLA.

DJ Horne scored 18 points in the victory over Stanford and Frankie Collins scored 15, but the Sun Devils were outrebounded 44-39 without big man Warren Washington, who was out because of COVID-19 concerns.

Arizona State trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half and was down 52-41 with 13:26 remaining before a quick 9-0 run got the Sun Devils within striking distance. They took the lead for good at 67-65 with 1:50 remaining.

“This game was textbook about how our season has been,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “Getting down at different stages, then getting up and finding a way. It was great that the guys fought as hard as they did and were able to get a win.”

Cal (3-21, 2-11) has been unable to find its way all season. The Golden Bears started 0-12, rebounded with three victories in four games around the holidays and are now on an eight-game losing streak.

Cal was thumped 85-62 by No. 4 Arizona at home on Thursday, with the positive coming from the fact that they scored more than 48 points for the first time in five games as the offense increased its tempo.

Golden Bears leading scorer Devin Askew (15.5 points per game) was ruled out for the remainder of the season last week and underwent sports hernia surgery. DeJuan Clayton returned Thursday after missing two games due to an illness, but shot just 2-of-11 from the field and scored five points.

“DeJuan, I don’t think he was in any rhythm and on defense we couldn’t solve the matchups — they were too big,” Cal coach Mark Fox said. “I thought we competed for significant segments in the game but we dug too big of a hole.”

–Field Level Media

No. 7 UCLA will be out to maintain its place atop the Pac-12 Conference and complete a season sweep of Oregon on Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

UCLA (20-4, 11-2 Pac-12) won its third straight to remain a half-game ahead of Arizona in the league race, routing Oregon State on the road Thursday, 62-47.

The 47 points were the fewest the Bruins allowed any opponent on the season, the result of UCLA holding the Beavers to 16-of-45 shooting from the floor and forcing 18 turnovers.

“I thought we were going to hold them under 40 points, which I feel like is pretty crazy in a college game,” guard Jaylen Clark said.

Clark, who contributed to the defensive effort with three steals, leads the Pac-12 in takeaways with 2.7 per game.

“This one is over and done and now we are looking forward to going back down to Eugene,” Clark said in his postgame press conference, adding that winning at Oregon is “the biggest goal. That’s why we came out here.

“Winning at home, that’s easy,” he said. “You have your fans. Your fans are going to get you 10 points and pump you up.”

The Bruins beat the Ducks at home earlier this season, part of a perfect 13-0 mark for UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. No UCLA team has won at Oregon since January 2019, however, a streak of three consecutive wins for the Ducks over the Bruins at Matthew Knight Court.

Oregon (15-10, 9-5) picked up its fourth consecutive home win on Thursday in a dominant, 78-60 defeat of Southern California.

The Ducks never trailed and built a lead of as many as 18 points less than 12 minutes into the contest.

“That was one of our better efforts” on the season, Oregon coach Dana Altman said in his postgame press conference, evident in the Ducks holding USC to its fourth-lowest scoring total of the campaign.

“We played pretty hard tonight and our depth was good,” Altman said.

Depth was indeed a factor, with seven Ducks scoring before halftime and four finishing in double figures for the game: N’Faly Dante with 17 points, Will Richardson with 16, Jermaine Couisnard with 13 and Nate Bittle with 11 in less than 18 minutes.

Richardson also dished nine assists to pace the Ducks offense.

Oregon’s NET ranking climbed from No. 53 to No. 50 with Thursday’s win, and the Ducks boast three victories over fellow Pac-12 NCAA Tournament hopefuls in the last four games, also beating Utah and Arizona State to go with the defeat of USC.

A win Saturday would mark Oregon’s second at home against a top 10-ranked league opponent after routing current No. 5 Arizona on Jan. 14, 87-68.

UCLA looks to counter the depth Oregon demonstrated on Thursday with a balanced and deep attack of its own. Five Bruins — led by Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s 16 points per game — average in double-figure scoring.

Clark is posting 13.2 points per game, Tyger Campbell is averaging 12.8 to go with his nearly five assists a contest, Amari Bailey is recording 10.6 points per game and David Singleton averages 10.1 points primarily coming off the bench.

–Field Level Media

Vanderbilt is being fined $250,000 by the Southeastern Conference after fans rushed the court to celebrate an upset victory of No. 6 Tennessee on Wednesday.

The SEC said Friday that it was Vanderbilt’s fourth violation of the league’s access to competition area policy.

Vanderbilt fans rushed the floor Tuesday when Tyrin Lawrence drained a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Commodores a 66-65 victory. Vanderbilt snapped an 11-game skid against the Volunteers, their in-state rivals.

The fine is Vanderbilt’s second in three months. The university also was docked $250,000 when fans ran on to the field after a 31-24 football victory over Florida on Nov. 19.

The SEC policy states that “access to competition areas shall be limited to participating student-athletes, coaches, officials, support personnel and properly-credentialed individuals at all times. For the safety of participants and spectators alike, at no time before, during or after a contest shall spectators be permitted to enter the competition area. It is the responsibility of each member institution to implement procedures to ensure compliance with this policy.”

According to the SEC, violations of the policy call for fines of $50,000 for a first offense, up to $100,000 for a second offense and up to $250,000 for a third and subsequent offenses.

–Field Level Media