It was a game of runs for the most part, but in the end, the Runnin’ Utes pulled away from the USC Trojans and came out on top, 80-69 on the road.
Jakob Poeltl finished with a game-high 29 points and added 13 rebounds, four steals and four assists. Next for the Utes was Jordan Loveridge with 13 points and Lorenzo Bonam with nine points, while fellow senior Brandon Taylor finished with eight points and 10 assists.
As a team, the Utes finished shooting 53.6 percent from the field and the Trojans finished shooting 46.7 percent. Utah had 23 assists on 30 made shots, and Poeltl believes this is a big reason why the team came out victorious.
“We really had to come in here and play 100 percent and play our best basketball,” Poeltl said in a postgame interview with ESPN 700. “We came out ready and we played good team basketball.”
Head coach Larry Krystkowiak said that the team’s offensive success stems from its defense and credits his guys for not committing many fouls Sunday afternoon.
“Our guys are doing such a great job of sharing the basketball,” Krystkowiak said in a postgame interview with ESPN 700. “It’s a brand of basketball that I’ve always liked to play. It’s contagious and it’s fun to play, but it’s always predicated on our defense. You don’t win if you don’t play defense.”
Both teams were playing defensively sound to open the game, but USC got on the board first after draining a three-pointer. Thanks to Poeltl’s early aggressiveness, the Utes soon got on top after he scored a quick five points, and just over four minutes into the game, Utah lead 10-3.
The Trojans ended Utah’s run when they made another three, but Utah continued to attack the basket. USC made it a one-point game, but Chris Reyes took matters into his own hands to get the lead up to five. Loveridge then hit a three pointer, forcing USC to call a timeout with the score at 21-13.
After going up and down the court a few times, the Trojans cut the lead to four points. USC was trying to contain Poeltl, but when it brought a double team to guard him, he quickly found Bonam for an open three-pointer. Poeltl started to take over and gave the Utes an 11-point lead. Dakarai Tucker then drained a three-pointer to give them their biggest lead of the half at 14.
USC closed out the half by hitting a last-second three, and Utah lead 40-30 heading into the locker rooms.
Loveridge and Taylor opened the second half by hitting a pair of three-pointers, as the Utes went up by 16 points. After a couple of turnovers by the Utes, the Trojans cut the score to 49-42. Utah struggled to get the ball in the bottom of the net and its lead was down to just five points with 15:51 left to play.
“I didn’t need to be captain obvious, but we had four straight turnovers, missed some shots, and our defense wasn’t stellar,” Krystkowiak said in the interview.
Behind Poeltl’s play on the offensive end of the floor, Utah soon lead by double digits again and with 10:33 left to go, were up 61-51.
After some back-and-forth play between the two teams, USC elected to start fouling with the Utes up 10 in hopes they would miss their free throws — but Utah didn’t. Poeltl continued to lead the way and had a nice sequence of events when he got an offensive rebound, assisted Kyle Kuzma on a shot, then stole the ball on USC’s next possession.
Loveridge hit another three-pointer to give the Utes an 80-63 lead with 1:18 left and really solidified the win for the Utes.
Utah has now won four games in a row and will finish the rest of conference play at home.
“We’re on a little bit of a roll and you can feel it in the team,” Poeltl said in the interview. “The chemistry is there and we’re playing good on both ends of the floor and we just flow in the game. It’s fun to play basketball like that.”
Next up, Utah faces Arizona State on Thursday night.
@kbrenneisen