First loss of the season
Utah lost its first game of the season 90-66 to the Miami Hurricanes, who proved to be the better of the two teams on Friday night in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
The Utes got off to a slow start while Miami had the opposite experience, taking an immediate 7-0 lead, until Lorenzo Bonam nailed a shot from beyond the arc. Even with this three-pointer, Utah never really found its footing and was down at the half, 46-32.
The second half was much of the same for Utah, who again struggled to keep up with a Hurricane team that had scored 105 points the night before.
Quick Stats
The Utes finished the night shooting 50 percent, compared to Miami’s 53.4 percent. However, the biggest stat differential of the night was turnovers. The Runnin’ Utes turned the ball over 16 times while the Hurricanes only gave it away seven times. Miami also scored 23 points off of these turnovers.
Jordan Loveridge lead all scorers for Utah with 18 points.
Foul trouble in back-to-back games
For the second night in a row, Jakob Poeltl was forced to sit on the bench because of two quick fouls. He finished the game with 16 points but just six rebounds.
The team ended with 21 total fouls.
Coach’s corner
Head coach Larry Krystkowiak was not happy with his team’s effort at halftime, not only because of the foul trouble they were in, but because they had just one rebound the first 20 minutes.
“I looked at the stat sheet at halftime, and I don’t care how many fouls our guys have, we had one rebound among all of our big guys,” Krystkowiak said.
The guards again struggled shooting, and although they have not found any sort rhythm yet, Krystkowiak is hopeful it will eventually come along.
“I shared with our team that life is about 10 percent what happens to you and about 90 percent how you respond to it, and I’ve got a lot of faith in Brandon [Taylor] and Dakarai [Tucker],” Krystkowiak said.
@kbrenneisen