Lack of offense spoils solid defensive effort in Utah’s close loss to USC

LOS ANGELES — The Utah basketball team played one of its better defensive games of the season Thursday night at the Galen Center in holding an explosive USC team to just 56 points on 37.3% field-goal shooting.

The Utes limited the Trojans’ leading scorer, Onyeka Okongwu, to just 11 points on nine shots and their second-leading scorer Jonah Mathews to 2-of-9 shooting.

“I was super proud of our guys defensively,” said Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak, who also noted that the Utes outrebounded a team that had only been outrebounded three times all season. “We executed pretty well and managed to hang in there and gave ourselves an opportunity to win.”

The problem was the Ute offense. Five days after shooting 63% from the field, the Utes shot about half as well, finishing at just 32.7% on the night, the seventh time this season they have shot under 36%. In scoring 52 points, they matched their low output of the year and the result was their eighth loss in 20 games.

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“We just have to make a couple of more baskets or a couple of more free throws and we’re talking about a different story,” Krystkowiak said.

The Utes led by six points at halftime and by nine points with 12:34 left in the game at 40-31. That’s when the Utes went ice cold, going more than six minutes without a basket, allowing the Trojans to take their first lead of the night with a 12-0 run.

Krystkowiak lamented one stretch when four different Utes missed “wide-open” shots on one possession as the Utes kept getting rebounds, and came up empty.

“I don’t think we were struggling to find offense. I’d prefer to say we had great looks and they didn’t go in,” the Ute coach said. “At the end of the day when you’re playing a game in the 50s, you’ve got to knock a few more of them down.”

Utah’s leading scorer on the year, Timmy Allen, who was apparently under the weather, had a rough night, finishing just 5 of 20 from the field and getting blocked on a key drive with under 10 seconds left and the Utes down by two. Also freshman Rylan Jones, who was the hero of Utah’s two wins over Washington and Washington State last week, only made 2 of 9 shots and had six turnovers.

Yet the Utes still led the game 52-50 on an Allen basket with 1:04 to play. However, they couldn’t score the rest of the game, as Branden Carlson missed a pair of free throws with 42 seconds left and then Allen had his shot blocked at the end.

“It’s disappointing that we lost, but we played our hardest and focused on defense,” said Carlson. “We just didn’t make as many shots as we’d like.”

The Utes played without Both Gach, who has been the Utes’ second-leading scorer most of the season but missed the game because of a knee injury, according to Krysktkowiak. Gach suited up, however, and according to his coach, was a “game-time decision,” so he shouldn’t be out long.

Freshman Jaxon Brenchley started in Gach’s place and finished with six points and five rebounds in 23 minutes. 

“Jax played hard — it’s an opportunity for some of our guys to grow a little bit,” said Krystkowiak. “He played some extended minutes was pretty dang solid overall and from a defensive end we certainly didn’t miss anything.” 

Now it’s over to Pauley Pavilion where the Utes will play a UCLA team that improved to 4-4 in league play with a 72-68 upset of No. 20 Colorado Thursday night. That game tips off at 1 p.m. MT Saturday.

Krystkowiak said the Bruins are much like the Trojans with some tough inside players and that the Utes will need to rebound and stop their opponents’ transition.