RENO — The Utah basketball team may be the most youthful squad in America, but the young guys showed they can play as they opened the season with a solid 79-74 victory over Nevada Tuesday night before 8,324 at the Lawlor Events Center.
The Utes were opening the season on the road for the first time in 24 years against a team that came in with an 18-game winning streak at home, which tied a school record and was the fifth-longest active streak in the NCAA Division I basketball.
But the Utes took control early and led for nearly the whole game. They got a great overall performance from sophomore Timmy Allen, who had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and clutch play from Both Gach, who scored 22 points to start the 2019-20 season off in style.
“The guys played pretty dang hard. They scrapped and I’m real proud of them,” said Ute coach Larry Krystkowiak, who is now 9-0 in season openers. “We hit some big free throws and the key to the game was outrebounding them by 20 (51-32). Our goal was 12 turnovers; we got 13 we’ll take that.”
“The guys played pretty dang hard. They scrapped and I’m real proud of them.” — Ute coach Larry Krystkowiak
The Utes played like an inexperienced team for stretches of the game, but after letting Nevada come back to take a two-point lead late in the game, they went on an 11-2 run and then put the game away at the free-throw line, making 6 of 8 in the final minute.
“These guys have been working extremely hard and they deserve this,” Krystkowiak said. “It’s not easy to come into this environment with a group of young kids. I thought they had an edge to them from the beginning,”
Sporting a team with the most freshmen of any school (tied with Navy and TCU with 11) and the fewest upperclassmen of any of the 351 Division I schools, the Utes felt they had talent, but that it would take awhile to jell as a team. Nevada also has a young squad with just two players back from last year’s Mountain West Conference championship team, but the Wolf Pack were picked to finish fourth in the 11-team MWC.
Allen, who lost more than 20 pounds since last year, showed off his improved quickness by getting to the basket often on drives as he led the Utes scored 11 of his team-high 23 points in the first half. For the game, he made 8 of 16 field goals but struggled from the foul line, making just 7 of 14. Gach was 8-for-15, including 3 of 8 from 3-point range. The Utes also got nice game from freshman Rylan Jones, who had 9 points, five rebounds and five assists and hit some clutch free throws at the end.
The Wolf Pack got a terrific game from Lindsey Drew, who was returning to team after sitting out with an Achilles injury last year as he kept his team in the game early with 18 first-half points before finishing with 30. Returning starter Jazz Johnson added 16 for Nevada.
The Utes took early leads of 11-9 and 18-13 and were up 27-19 when the Wolf Pack scored eight straight points to tie the game. A late flurry gave the Utes a 37-32 halftime lead.
Utah kept the lead most of the second half and led by as many seven at 56-49 before the Wolf Pack went on a 9-0 run to go ahead for the first time since early in the game.
But the Utes didn’t panic and led by Gach, went on a 11-2 run to take over the game.
First Gach scored on a drive to the basket, then hit a 3-pointer from the left angle. Then Alphonso Plummer scored on a drive and Allen made an old-fashioned 3-point play, followed by another 3-pointer by Gach from the top to make it 69-60 with 4:01 left.
Nevada cut the lead to five, but the Utes hit eight of their last 10 free throws to put the game on ice.
The Utes return home to face Mississippi Valley State Friday at the Huntsman Center. The next game will be a week later when Minnesota of the Big Ten pays a visit to the Huntsman Center.
UTE NOTES: The last time the Utes opened the season on the road was in 1995 when Keith Van Horn was a junior and they lost to Kansas 79-68 in Kansas CIty. ... The all-time series against Nevada was 10-1 for Utah coming into the game with the only loss coming last year in Salt Lake 86-71. ... Steve Alford is in his first year as Nevada coach, replacing Eric Musselman, who left to become the head coach at Arkansas after a 29-5 season and a Mountain West regular-season title. ... Alford coached six years at New Mexico, including four against Utah in the Mountain West and six years at UCLA. He was 9-8 against Utah in his career coming into the game. Steve Alford is 13 victories short of 600 for his career. ... Krystkowiak is now 198-130 in his career at Utah.