OPPORTUNITY SQUELCHED Utes earn a season low in tournament semifinals against Oregon Ducks

LAS VEGAS — The magic ran out on the Runnin’ Utes in a big way Friday night. After becoming the talk of the Pac-12 following unexpected wins in the first two rounds of the conference tournament, Utah struggled from the outset against the Oregon Ducks in the tournament semifinals and fell 64-45. The 45 Utah points were a season low.
“They played a hell of a game,” Jarred DuBois said. “I just think they outplayed us. They played a good game. They were well prepared and they executed their game plan.”
The Utes’ struggle on both ends of the floor began early, as Utah quickly fell behind by eight midway through the first half. A Ducks team that allowed the Utes to get easy buckets last weekend in the teams’ contest at the Huntsman Center was allowing nothing and Utah couldn’t adjust.
By the end of the first half, Utah had produced just 15 points, by far its season low for a first frame, and trailed by 14. Its previous season low in that category was 22. Only Brandon Taylor, Dakarai Tucker and Jordan Loveridge scored for the Utes in the first 20 minutes, as Utah shot just 6-of-19 from the field.
DuBois, who had become the Utes’ go-to guy during the team’s surprise run, was 0-for-3 in that span. He finished the night scoreless as the Utes posted a season-low 45 points.
“They brought ball pressure, they played really hard, played the passing lanes and got out and denied, pressured a little bit,” DuBois said. “For 40 minutes, they played really well.”
Additionally, Oregon capitalized on the Utes’ mistakes, establishing its offense in the paint and supplementing that with good shooting from the perimeter. Ducks freshman Damyean Dotson led the first-half charge with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range.
But it wasn’t just the scoring department that Utah struggled in during Friday’s first half, as it got beat in every statistical category. Among the lowlights was getting outrebounded 18-10 and allowing Oregon 27 shot attempts compared to its 19. For the night, the Ducks outrebounded the Utes 38-32.
“I feel like through the whole game, they prided themselves on getting up and they really sped us up the whole game,” said Loveridge, who finished with eight points.
The loss likely signaled the end of the season for a Utah team, which struggled throughout the season in many of the categories that plagued it on Friday. Because they finished the season below .500 at 15-18, the Utes almost surely won’t receive an invitation to any postseason tournament. Despite that, Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak was pleased with the way his team ended the season.
“I’m really proud of our guys and their ability to continue to get better as the year went on,” Krystkowiak said. “From a coaching perspective, if you can be playing your best basketball at the end of the year, I think [is] what we all strive for and that’s what our fellas did. It gives you a little bit of a taste of what success can be like.”