Whenever the Utes have played away from the Huntsman Center this season, the same narrative has followed them: They stay close only to suffer a heart-wrenching loss.
Utah was able to put its past bad luck behind it by beating Cal 63-59 in Berkeley Wednesday night. With the win, the Utes tallied their 20th victory of the season and moved above .500 in league play to 9-8.
Leading 48-42 late in the second half, it seemed Utah was in control, but then the late-game struggles that have plagued the Utes all year long began to rear their evil head. The Utah offense became stagnant and the Golden Bears took advantage with an 8-0 run to give them the lead at 50-48 with 2:12 to play
The Utes had been here before and were determined to not let another game slip away.
“It was starting feel reminiscent about what has happened to us this year,” head coach Larry Krystkowiak said on the ESPN 700 postgame show. “We had a spirited timeout talking about just getting stops and taking it one play at a time.”
In that timeout, sophomore Brandon Taylor spoke up.
“I told the team we have been here before, let’s not let it happen again,” he said on the postgame show.
Utah didn’t, running off a 9-0 run to take the lead for good, and it was Taylor who hit the biggest shot of the night. With the Utes up by two with under a minute to go, he banged home a three to give his team a little breathing room. Taylor finished the game with 13 points to lead Utah.
For the entirety of the game, both Cal and the Utes struggled on the offensive end. The Bears shot 39% from the field while Utah shot a chilly 35%.
“For us to shoot 35% from the field and still find a way to win, you never would have predicted that,” Krystkowiak said. “But if you look at all the other categories, we did really well.”
The Utes won the rebounding battle 39-34 against the bigger Bears and only committed six turnovers for the game.
Cal jumped out to an early 7-0 lead as the Utes struggled to find any rhythm offensively early on. Krystkowiak quickly turned to his bench and was rewarded. With the offense dead in the water, Kenneth Ogbe came in and hit two threes to spearhead an early 9-0 run that got Utah its first lead of the game at 18-17. Seldom-used big man Marko Kovacevic also provided a boost with his energy, low post scoring and interior passing.
“There were a lot of positives in the game,” Kryskowiak said. “Marko gave us a big lift and Kenneth hit some big shots.”
Those contributions helped the Utes overcome off nights by their two leading scorers. Delon Wright and Jordan Loveridge combined to shoot just 6-for-27 from the field.
Though the Utah offense struggled for the majority of the game, its defense did step up. It held Cal’s leading scorer Justin Cobbs to six points on the game and was able to get stops at the most crucial moments.
“We were thinking stops, stops ,stops, stops and then worry about your offense,” Taylor said. “Justin Cobbs is a major part of that team, so once you limit that part you have a very good chance of winning that game.”
With the victory, the Utes feel that their end-of-game fortunes might be changing.
“I thought it was a huge turning point for us to kind of shift the tables and make some plays at the end,” Krystkowiak said.
Taylor agreed.
“It feels like we got that monkey off our back,” he said.
Utah will next travel to Stanford for a Saturday afternoon matchup with the Cardinal for the regular season finale. That game is scheduled to tip off at 12:30 p.m. MT.