The Runnin’ Utes’ first venture out of the state of Utah came in a late-night matchup Tuesday against Grand Canyon at the Acrisure Series in Palm Desert, California.
In a contest that stretched over into Wednesday, the Utes couldn’t get into a rhythm and were plagued by turnover issues as the Lopes handed Utah its second straight loss, 68-58.
“It’s frustrating, the unforced turnovers. We’ve talked about it, we’ve shown them, it’s just a matter of slowing down, let the game come to you,” Utah coach Alex Jensen said in a postgame interview on ESPN 700 AM.
How the game transpired
Grand Canyon built an early eight-point lead after a 7-0 run gave them an 11-3 lead just three minutes into the game.
The Utes fought back with a 7-0 run of their own to go up for the first time at 18-17. Unfortunately for Utah, they only led for 1:16 all night, and pretty quickly, the Lopes took the lead back.
While things stayed relatively close for much of the first half, Grand Canyon opened up a five-point lead at 33-28 going into halftime.
Much like their quick start in the first half, the Lopes used an 8-0 run to go up 41-29, and from there, the Utes were forced to play from a deficit that edged on double digits nearly the rest of the way.
A Seydou Traore 3 did make the score 47-41 with 8:23 to play, but again Grand Canyon had an answer and quickly pushed the lead back to double digits over the next minute.
That remained the case over the game’s final minutes, as the Lopes kept Utah at bay to earn the win.
Turnovers and foul trouble plagued Utah
The Utes were on the wrong side of the turnover battle against Grand Canyon, as Utah gave the ball away 14 times while the Lopes had six turnovers.
That led to a dominant 17-0 edge in points off turnovers for Grand Canyon. That lopsided effort was too much for Utah to make it competitive down the stretch, and early turnovers in both halves were particularly damaging to the Utes.
Utah also had foul trouble throughout the night.
Traore ended up fouling out, while four others — Terrence Brown, Josh Hayes, Keanu Dawes and Obomate Abbey — each finished with four.
At halftime, Hayes had three fouls, while Dawes and Traore each had two.
The Lopes took advantage of the foul issues and hit 11 of 14 from the free-throw line in the first half, including a perfect 6 of 6 from Jaden Henley.
That was the difference in the opening half, as Utah made 2 of 4 free throws in the first 20 minutes.
Brown then picked up his fourth foul with 8:40 to play on his worst scoring night of the season (more on that in a minute).
Grand Canyon cooled some from the free-throw line in the second half, but the Lopes still made 22 of 32 on the night.
Utah ended up 11 of 18 from the free-throw line.
“They had 17 points off of turnovers, and the free-throw line was disappointing tonight. That’s one (of those) things you have control over,” Jensen said.
“14 turnovers were 17 points is probably the difference tonight. So frustrating, because it’s something we’ve kind of emphasized the last probably couple weeks.”
Offensive lapses overshadow better defensive effort
It wasn’t an offensive showcase on either side — Utah ended up shooting 41.2% from the floor, while the Lopes shot 39.7% and were 0 of 10 from 3-point range.
Don McHenry was the only Ute to have a solid shooting night, as he scored a team-high 16 points on 5 of 7 shooting from the field (1 of 1 from 3) and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line.
Dawes added 10 points and 12 rebounds for another double-double, as Utah out-rebounded Grand Canyon 40-33 — a rare positive on the night for the Utes.
While Utah was better from 3-point range, making 5 of 16, a deeper dive showed some issues as well. The Utes made 4 of 5 from 3 to start the game, but were just 1 of 11 over the game’s final 31 and a half minutes.
The biggest surprise offensively was that Brown, the Utes’ leading scorer, was held to a season-low 9 points on 3 of 11 shooting. He also shot just 2 of 5 from the free-throw line.
Prior to Tuesday night, Brown had scored more than 20 points in each of Utah’s last five games and entered the day second in the country, averaging 25.2 points per game.
Utah’s biggest woes over the first six games came on the defensive end. In that respect, the Utes showed improvement.
Like Utah, Grand Canyon went through multiple scoreless stretches during a game where the offenses bogged down.
The Lopes owned a 40-30 edge in points in the paint, though, as they used their height to their advantage.
Three Grand Canyon players scored in double-figures, led by 18 points from Henley.
Backup center Efe Demirel, who stands 7-foot-1, came off the bench to score a career-high 12 points while adding five rebounds.
With the offensive woes Utah dealt with Tuesday night, the defensive improvements weren’t enough to get a win.
“Going back to the collective mindset that a team needs to have is you can guard, nobody makes all their shots, but you can pretty much do the right assignment every time,” Jensen said of Utah’s defensive effort.
“... We got to be pesky. And I think we did it well at times, but I don’t think we did a great job throughout the game.”
What it means for Utah
The Utes were coming off a seven-point home loss against Cal Poly and needed a bounce-back effort.
They didn’t get it, and now Utah will have to try and stop the skid against a power conference opponent.
With the loss, Utah will play Ole Miss at 10 p.m. MST on Wednesday night.
“It only gets harder. (We) haven’t watched a ton of tape on them,” Jensen said of Ole Miss. “I imagine they’re probably a step above Grand Canyon, not to take anything away from them.
“We’re at the point now where we’ll prepare for Ole Miss, but there’s things we need to do ourselves, regardless of who we’re playing against.”
Grand Canyon, meanwhile, will face Iowa at 7:30 p.m. MST Wednesday.
The Hawkeyes beat the Rebels 74-69 in the game before Utah and Grand Canyon faced off in the nightcap.