Runnin’ Utes Drop First Game of the Season to Feisty Bearkats
University of Utah men’s basketball guard Mike Saunders Jr. (#2) calls a play in the NCAA Men’s Basketball game vs. Idaho State University at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. (Photo by Jack Gambassi | The Daily Utah Chronicle)
November 18, 2022
The University of Utah men’s basketball team lost their first game of the season on Thursday night against Sam Houston State to open the Ft. Myers Tip-Off. They’ll travel to Florida for two more games next week, their first road trip of the season. Utah won a game against Idaho State on Monday evening prior to this loss.
On Monday against the Idaho State Bengals, Utah led by double digits for most of the night. The Bengals gave Utah a scare in the second half, rallying back to make it a one point game with 10 minutes to play, but the Utes did a good job punching back and pulling back ahead. They ultimately won, 70-58 behind 26 points and nine rebounds from All-Pac-12 center Branden Carlson.
The Utes weren’t able to get much of anything going offensively on Thursday night against the Sam Houston State Bearkats. Luckily for them, the other team also started slow, leading to a 27-23 halftime lead for Sam Houston. Utah had only 10 points over the first 15 minutes of the game. They battled in the final few minutes of the first half to make the game close.
Utah and Sam Houston State went back and forth for the entire second half, but the Utes never took the lead. They cut the deficit to just one point, but were not able to overcome a really tough Bearkats squad that played hard all night. Qua Grant scored 22 of their 65 total points. The Bearkats improve to 4-0 on the season, and the Utes are now 3-1. Even though Sam Houston State isn’t a Power Five school, they are a quality program, and the Utes got outworked all night.
Utah needs to find some more consistent offense if they want to win games against tougher opponents. Carlson is an amazing talent, but they haven’t had consistent production from anyone else this season outside of a few hot shooting performances from Gabe Madsen. Lazar Stefanovic has started slow, Marco Anthony didn’t play in the first three games, and the rest of the team has been inefficient. It’s a brand new squad, so growing pains are expected, but they have some tough matchups coming up and will need to be at the top of their game to hang with teams like Arizona and TCU on the schedule in December.
Up next, the Utes face Georgia Tech in Ft. Myers, Florida for the second game of the Ft. Myers Tip-Off. They’ll play on Monday at 4 p.m. MST.
