With the game on the line and Utah trailing Oregon State 68-66, Jordan Loveridge was fouled shooting a three pointer with 2.2 seconds left. He made all three from the line to give the Utes a one-point lead, and, seemingly, a victory.
Then, with OSU’s Stephen Thompson Jr. attempting a last-second heave, Brandon Taylor fouled him at half court with 0.1 second left on the clock, giving the Beavers life. Thompson Jr. went on to make his three free throws, giving Oregon State the 71-69 win in Corvallis on Thursday night.
Despite the last foul, head coach Larry Krystkowiak isn’t placing all the blame on Taylor’s shoulders. He thinks there were a number of plays his team could have played better on, especially towards the end when the Utes gave up a 10-point lead.
Going into the locker room after the game, the Utes knew they gave up a good shot at winning their sixth game in a row.
“This isn’t on Brandon,” Krystkowiak said in a postgame interview with ESPN 700. “Brandon made the last error of the game, but there were so many errors leading up to that one. We didn’t look like a team that has its sights set on the championship. Jordan bailed us out and hit three big free throws and it’s unfortunate that we’re not celebrating that performance.”
Jakob Poeltl finished with 20 points and nine rebounds in the losing effort, while Kyle Kuzma followed with 17 points and five rebounds. As a whole, the team shot 51.1 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 12 times.
It didn’t take long for Oregon State to get its crowd into the game after knocking down two early threes on its way to a seven-point lead. Utah was trying to cut into it when Dakarai Tucker made one from deep, but the Beavers answered with yet another of their own.
The Utes were finding a lot of success in the paint, however, and that is how they eventually tied the game at 22 apiece. At this point, Kuzma led the way with 10 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Utes took the lead when Tucker drained another three to make the score 25-24.
OSU tied it at 27 and Utah had its first turnover of the half with under 6:30 remaining, which lead to another Oregon State bucket as it retook the lead. The Beavers were up 35-31 heading into the locker rooms.
After a few misses from OSU and then a few makes from Utah to open up the second half, the Utes took a 38-37 in the opening minutes. Tucker soon hit his third triple of the game to put the Utes up by four.
The teams continued to battle with each other and Loveridge drained a three to extend Utah’s lead to six. Loveridge fired again from three to put the Utes up 55-46, and they were running at this point.
Despite a few quick fouls in the early minutes of the second half, Poeltl’s aggressiveness never faltered. He continued to power his way on the inside and after a three-point play, gave the Utes a double-digit lead. However, he was called for his fourth foul with 7:24 left to play and forced to the bench.
With Poeltl a non-factor, the Beavers started to claw their way back into the game. They caused a couple of turnovers and after going on a 7-0 run, it was just a three-point game.
Krystkowiak put his big man back on the court with about five minutes left as Utah was holding on to a four-point lead. Scoring came to standstill with Utah turning the ball over a couple of times and Oregon State struggling to find the bottom of the net. The Beavers eventually drained a three-pointer to cut the lead to a single point.
With momentum on their side, the Beavers took a 64-63 lead with 1:41 left in the game. Utah soon turned the ball over again and OSU took advantage to go up 66-63, eventually winning the game.
Utah will next face Oregon on Sunday afternoon and Krystkowiak hopes that after a night of sleep, the team will be able to push past this difficult loss.
“The season is built of learning experiences and you can remember how bad this felt and how silly this looked,” Krystkowiak said in the interview. “Going to have to improve.”
@kbrenneisen