On the road for the first time this season, the Runnin’ Utes weren’t able to fend off No. 13 Xavier as they dropped their second game of the season, 77-69.
When down by 15 points, Utah attempted to use a late game push to even the score, and they came within four points, but Xavier never relinquished its lead.
Devon Daniels finished with a career high 19 points and Lorenzo Bonam contributed 18. Jojo Zamora scored 12 points off the bench and Kyle Kuzma recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Overall, Utah shot 51.9 percent from the field. Xavier finished shooting 46.6 percent from the floor. Utah did commit 14 turnovers. Xavier scored 19 points from this.
Head coach Larry Krystkowiak would like to see his team give it a full effort for the entire 40 minutes — he thinks his team was doing a lot of jogging around in the first half.
“We know what we need to fix, [but we] had some solid performances between Devon and JoJo,” Krystkowiak said in a postgame interview on ESPN700. “We understand our weaknesses and we got to start patching it together.”
Xavier was able to match every one of Utah’s made baskets in the opening minutes of the game. Five minutes into it the score was tied, 7-7. But after Zamora drained a three pointer to give the Utes a slim 10-7 lead, Xavier would fire off six straight points and it took a 13-10 advantage. Utah made it a one point game, but J.P. Macura scored a three for Xavier to extend its lead to four points. Xavier would work its way to a 21-12 lead.
Just as Utah looked to gain some momentum from a transition layup, Xavier responded with a dunk to make the score 24-16. Bonam would make a layup to bring the Utes within six points, but Xavier jumped out to its first double digit lead of the day, 29-18, when Macura made another three pointer.
Xavier expanded its lead to 14 points and as Daniels got a reverse layup from a backdoor pass, Xavier scored another three pointer to go up by 15. However, Daniels wasn’t backing down, and he nailed a jump shot, a layup with a foul, and subsequently the free throw following to make it a 10 point game, 39-29.
At the end of the first half Xavier had a 40-29 lead.
Coming out of halftime, Daniels was quick to sink a three pointer to make it an eight point game. Following a three pointer from Kuzma and one from Zamora, it was a six point game. Then Kuzma got to the basket for a layup and the Runnin’ Utes were down by four points, 44-40.
Utah kept up with Xavier for a bit, but following a made three pointer from Macura, Xavier went up by seven points, 53-46. After a dunk and later on a free throw, Xavier was up by double digits.
Xavier would maintain a lead around this number for a few minutes, but thanks to a few Utah free throws, the Utes were within five points, 61-56. After Xavier got a couple of more points, both teams struggled to score for a about a minute and a half until Trevon Bluiett made a layup to make it a nine point game. However, Daniels attacked the basket right after and got a three point play. It was a six point game with about three minutes left to play.
Utah managed to keep it a six point game from then on, but the Utes never inched any closer. Zamora fouled out with 27.2 seconds left when the score was 69-63. Daniels would also foul out with about 13 seconds remaining in the game as Xavier would hand the Utes their second loss of the season.
Looking forward, Kryskowiak hopes his team can learn to rely on each other.
“They need to relax and need to know it’s okay if they don’t put the weight of the world on their shoulders,” Krystkowiak said in a postgame interview on ESPN700.
Next up, the Utes will take on Prairie View A&M on Saturday Dec. 17 at 4 p.m.
@kbrenneisen