The Runnin’ Utes officially opened their season Friday night in the Huntsman Center, beating SUU 82-71.
Leading the way was Jordan Loveridge, who finished with 24 points and was 6-of-11 from three-point range. Both Kyle Kuzma, who finished with 23 points, and Jakob Poeltl, who finished with 26, set new career-highs. Head coach Larry Krystkowiak thinks this game really showed his team they cannot take any opponent lightly.
“That was an eye-opener for us,” Krystkowiak said. “Thank goodness for the big three — 73 of our 82 points came from three guys.”
Kuzma also added 12 rebounds to go with Poelt’s 11.
The Utah guards, however, failed to get anything going from three-point range. Brandon Taylor was 0-of-7, and Isaiah Wright was 0-of-6. Overall, it was a disappointing night shooting the bowl, as the team shot 46.9 percent from the floor and just 56 percent from the free-throw line.
“You’re not going to have a good shooting day every day, so we just tried to force the ball inside and it worked out,” Poeltl said.
Fans were pretty quiet in the first half after SUU came out firing. The Thunderbirds were 6-of-6 to to start the night. They also hit their first four attempts from beyond the arc. SUU led for the majority of the first 10 minutes, but Utah crawled back to take the lead later in the half at 24-23. SUU eventually tied the game at 24 apiece, and after a sloppy pass by Utah, SUU caused a turnover that led to an easy fast break.
Poeltl got the fans back into the game when he slammed the ball in with just under three minutes to play to give the Utes the two-point lead. Brekkott Chapman then had a nice put-back to extend it to four, but it didn’t last long. SUU answered back after a turnover by the Utes gave possession to the Thunderbirds, and they scored another three-pointer.
A couple makes by the Utes gave them the 38-36 lead going into halftime. SUU ended the half 5-of-10 from three-point range, compared to the Utes, who were just 4-of-15. Poeltl led all scorers with 16 points at the break.
The Utes went on a 10-4 run to open the second half, but SUU did not back down. The Thunderbirds nailed another three-pointer, followed by another long-range shot to bring them within three points.
SUU’s Juwan Major had the highlight of the night, dunking the ball right in front of Poeltl, but he was hit with a technical afterward for taunting him. After a couple of back-and-forth plays and a few makes, Loveridge hit a three to extend the lead to eight points.
However, SUU still hit a couple of threes on back-to-back plays. They finished 10-of-19 from three point range on the night.
With over eight minutes left to play, Utah had a 63-59 lead.
The MUSS was able to distract SUU for a bit and tricked a player into rushing an ill-advised three-point attempt, but the T-Birds recovered for two points. Utah’s poor free-throw shooting kept the game closer than what it probably should have been, with several players only making one of two attempts.
After a missed attempt by Poeltl, Kuzma had a nice put-back, but he was also fouled in the process. He couldn’t make the free throw, but this was when the Utes really started to run away with the game. The Utes jumped out to a 14-point lead. Another Loveridge three put the Utes up by 17, their largest lead of the night, but SUU had one final three to drain before the buzzer.
Although Krystkowiak knows his team will need to clean up its game, he gives credit to SUU for coming ready to play.
“I’m not going to call this a fluke because there’s a lot of credit that needs to go to Southern Utah,” Krystkowiak said.
Poeltl realizes he is going to need to do a better job of help-side defense in the next game and will also focus on not letting his man drive to basket as often as they did Friday night.
“I feel like we didn’t play with as much energy as we should have,” Poeltl said. “We didn’t have that defensive edge that we had last year. We gave them a lot of easy baskets, but they also made tough shots.”
The Runnin’ Utes are back in action Monday night as they will play host to San Diego State at 7:00 p.m.
@kbrenneisen