FORT WORTH, Texas — Craig Smith’s team is proving its resiliency.
The latest example came Wednesday night, as the Utah men’s basketball team went into Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, and beat TCU 73-65.
The Utes never trailed, and they never let the Horned Frogs — who were 9-0 at home before the matchup — get going offensively.
It all led to a rare, but crucial road win for Utah, as it won its second straight Big 12 game after starting league play 0-3.
It was also the Utes’ first true road win of the year.
“That’s a really good win for us. I have so much respect for (TCU coach) Jamie Dixon, and he’s a great coach. And they eliminate losing — they make it really hard on teams to score,” Utah coach Craig Smith said.
“And obviously they’ve been electric at home. I mean, they’ve been undefeated. And so that’s a heck of a road win for us. You’ve got to earn everything with them.”
There were a lot of positives for Utah on a night where the basketball wasn’t always pretty.
How about the effort of Keanu Dawes? The sophomore forward scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half and helped the Utes (10-6, 2-3 Big 12) respond to a comeback effort from TCU (9-7, 2-3 Big 12).
Dawes played 26 minutes, shot 7 of 10 from the field — he’s become a master dunker — and added six rebounds, along with a block and steal in the final minute on back-to-back possessions as the Utes held off TCU.
What about a team-high 17 points from Gabe Madsen, along with a Utah-best five assists? He scored 11 of those points in the first half, helping to jumpstart the night for the visitors.
Mike Sharavjamts made a couple big shots early in the second half and finished with 10 points, while Lawson Lovering — who’s played a critical role in Utah’s free-flowing offense — tossed in 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
“We just kind of took what they gave us,” Madsen said. “They wanted to hard hedge and ball screens, and we’ve got guys that can just make really good decisions out of that. So we welcome that when teams want to do that, and I think we just do a really good job of picking them apart and shooting the ball.”
From a team aspect, the Utes stuck together for their second win in five days, weathering spurts from TCU where the Horned Frogs trimmed their first-half deficit to just four at halftime, then a 14-point second-half deficit to as little as six on multiple occasions over the game’s final 10 minutes.
For Utah, its defense played a vital role in the win. The Utes held the plodding Horned Frogs to 37.5% shooting, making even mini-runs from TCU take an extended amount of time and effort.
Utah gave up 15 offensive rebounds, but the Horned Frogs only turned those into nine points.
“They went under ball screens, they sagged, and I just don’t think we played well against it,” Dixon said of the Utes’ defensive effort.
And while TCU’s star guards Vasean Allette (19 points, nine rebounds, four assists) and Noah Reynolds (12 points, three assists) ended up with good numbers, Utah didn’t allow them to burn the Utes outside of a few short stretches.
This came after the pair helped TCU edge BYU in a 71-67 game in Fort Worth last Saturday.
“You know, they’ve beaten a couple teams here at home recently in tight games, but defense travels right?” Smith said. “I thought we’ve made great strides here in the last week and a half, two weeks on that end of the floor in particular.
“I thought we followed our game plan on their personnel. We had to mix it up a little bit just to try to keep them off balance. We just made enough plays on that end.”
Offensively, Utah did enough to keep the game in their favor.
One game after what Smith called the best offensive effort of the season in an 83-62 win over Oklahoma State, the Utes shot 49%, including 54.2% in the second half.
Utah again successfully used ball movement to create open lanes and took what TCU gave them, leading to 18 assists on 24 made baskets.
The Horned Frogs are known for their stubborn defense, but Utah battled through it and proved to be the more physical, assertive team on this night.
“We’re playing really connected, which we’ve done all year. I mean, I don’t know, depending on what metric you’re looking at, we’re one or two in the country in assists,” Smith said.
“... I just think the biggest thing, we were just able to make enough plays late in the clock.”
The Horned Frogs had the chance to cut the Utah lead to five points with just under three minutes to play, but Reynolds missed what would have been a rim-rocking dunk.
Moments later, Dawes scored his final points on a layup that made it 64-55 with 2:20 to play.
Utah then sealed the game up at the free-throw line, making nine down the stretch on a night where free-throw shooting was a struggle for both teams — the Utes hit 19 of 29, while the Horned Frogs were a dreadful 10 of 21.
Dawes’ final-minute defensive effort was reminiscent, too, of the dogged determination the Utes showed.
First, with Utah nursing a six-point lead, Dawes blocked a layup attempt by Allette with 53 seconds to play.
Then after Sharavjamts made two free throws to push the lead to 67-59, Dawes stole the ball from Reynolds, and it led to two Madsen free throws to extend the lead back out to 10.
“We’ve got to keep going and just keep stacking good days,” Dawes said.
It was the kind of solid effort that gives the Utes optimism heading into their matchup with rival BYU at the Huntsman Center on Saturday (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+).
“I know our guys will enjoy this one till we fly back tonight, and we’ll be on to our preparation for a very good BYU team tomorrow,” Smith said.