TUCSON, Ariz. — Coming into Thursday night’s game, the Utah basketball team had lost nine straight games against Arizona at the McKale Center, dating back to their last win clear back in 1986 when Mitch Smith and Jimmy Madison sparked a one-point upset victory.
None of those losses was as bad as Thursday’s 93-77 defeat in front of 13,549 fans.
The last two years, the Utes had come close to breaking their streak, losing by one point two years ago and in overtime last year. Even Larry Krystkowiak’s first two years when the Utes weren’t very good at all, they had only lost by nine and three points, respectively.
In this one, the Utes were overwhelmed by an Arizona team that had been ranked in the top 25 all season, until dropping a pair of games in Oregon last week. The Utes fell behind by 24 points at halftime and trailed by 27 with under four minutes to go, before a nice little rally behind their reserves made the score somewhat respectable.
Even though the Utes were out of the game midway through the first half, Krystkowiak felt better about his team’s effort after feeling they kind of gave up in the 39-point loss at Colorado Sunday. And he was right.
The Utes played hard but just couldn’t keep up with a talented Arizona team that features three freshmen who are expected to go in the top 25 of the NBA draft by many experts.
“Give our guys a little bit of credit,” Krystkowiak said. “It felt better, we competed better, we didn’t quit. In the Colorado game, we kind of threw the towel in and that’s never going to happen again.”
One of the big differences in the game was the 3-point shooting of the Wildcats.
They aren’t known as a great 3-point shooting team and in their last five games had shot 29% from the 3 and never made more than eight in a game.
That all turned around Thursday when they started hitting from everywhere and finished with a season-high 15 makes on 29 attempts for 51.7%. Max Hazzard, a grad transfer from Cal Irvine who had made 37% of his 3-point shots, led the way with 6 of 10 and topped his season-high in points by 10 with 24 points.
“They were smokin’ from 3,” said Krsytkowiak. “We played some of them right, but we’ve got to stay connected with Hazzard and Nico (Mannion) hit some 3s. Those guys are quality shooters and those 3s add up fast.”
Matching Hazzard with 24 points was 6-foot-11 center Zeke Nnaji, who made 9 of 12 shots and pulled down eight rebounds. Nnaji is one of those three freshmen expected to go in the NBA first round, along with Mannion, who had 11 points and five assists and Josh Green, who had eight points and seven rebounds.
The Utes received one of their better games from sophomore forward Riley Battin, who scored 16 points with four rebounds. Timmy Allen, an Arizona native, also scored 16 points on 6 of 14 shooting, but he only had three rebounds. Rylan Jones was the other Ute in double figures with 11 points, and he also had five assists.
The Utes, who had fallen behind Colorado 16-2 before the game was four minutes old, kept up in the opening minutes before the Wildcats gradually pulled away. It was 25-13 at the midway point of the first half and 52-28 at halftime.
Utah cut the lead to 17 with under 10 minutes to go, only to see Arizona push the lead to 87-60 with 3:19 left. Both teams cleared their benches at that point and Utah’s reserves were a little better, going on a 17-6 run to finish the game, led by Alfonso Plummer, who scored nine points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
“We had some guys come in off the bench that haven’t played much and they contributed,” said Krystkowiak.
After the game, the Utes bussed up to Tempe to get ready for Saturday night’s 7 p.m. contest against Arizona State, which lost to Colorado 68-61 Thursday night. Utah has won the last four meetings against ASU in Tempe.