Maybe the demons haven’t quite been exorcised.
Coming off its first road victory of the season last Thursday at USC, Utah was looking to show that the road monkey was fully off its back Saturday at UCLA. The Utes had no such luck, as they virtually disappeared at the beginning of the second half and the Bruins ran away with an 80-66 victory.
Everything that has cost Utah road victories this season has come out in five-minute stretches. Turnovers, the inability to hit key shots, more turnovers and helplessness on the glass have doomed the Utes in short spurts. On Saturday, they were held scoreless for the first 5:31 of the second half, and by the time a shot finally sank for Utah, UCLA had scored 14 straight points en route to a double-digit lead.
“We came out and had four turnovers before the first timeout, and they had nine points off those turnovers,” said head coach Larry Krystkowiak on the ESPN 700 postgame show. “We just shot ourselves in the foot offensively. That puts too much heat on your team.”
As the lead grew, it seemed the Bruins got more and more engaged on the defensive end.
“You forget sometimes that you have to play really hard,” Krystkowiak said. “We weren’t finishing a lot of balls around the basket, we were bobbling balls and losing those 50/50 balls, and when they are dunking it and having fun, it just compounds.”
The Utes were able to overcome slow first halves from their two leading scorers to go into halftime down by just two, 33-31. Sophomore Jordan Loveridge was held scoreless in the opening frame while junior Delon Wright was limited to four points. The main weakness in Wright’s offensive game is his jump shot, and the Bruins sagged off the L.A. native, clogging up driving lanes.
Even with their two offensive stars struggling, the Utes were able to move the ball effectively in the first half and create good looks. Brandon Taylor, Dakarai Tucker and Princeton Onwas all contributed in keeping Utah in striking distance.
It was a whole different story once the second session began.
“It’s tough to come into a gym like this and play against such a good team,” said freshman Kenneth Ogbe on the postgame show. “If you make a mistake, they really come after it. You can’t make a mistake against a team like that.”
To their credit, the Utes didn’t cave after getting down by as many as 16. Wright drove hard possession after possession trying to get himself and his teammates going. He finished with 16 points, six rebounds and seven assists in the losing effort. Wright was the only Ute to reach double figures.
The dominant player all game was UCLA’s Jordan Adams. The Utes were powerless to stop Adams as he finished with a game-high 24 points and seemed to make the big basket whenever Utah was showing signs of a comeback.
The road ahead doesn’t get any easier for the Utes. They will welcome No. 4 Arizona to the Huntsman Center on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
“You can count the games on one hand before we reach Vegas [the Pac-12 Tournament], so things get magnified,” Krystkowiak said. “It’s been an interesting story, and we have learned a lot of lessons, but now is the time to start clicking and start playing well.”
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