The final result was expected.
On Saturday afternoon, Utah fell 71-59 to No. 11 Kansas at historic Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks put away the visiting Runnin’ Utes with an 18-4 second-half run that included a 10-0 spurt over a four-minute span, extinguishing the visitors’ hopes of pulling an upset one year after Utah knocked off Kansas in Salt Lake City.
“It’s little things in these games,” Utah assistant coach Martin Schiller said, when asked what happened at that pivotal juncture. “... In games like these, it’s going to be the margins, and those are those important ones to not let it slip away.”
It was the fifth straight loss for Utah (9-14, 1-9 Big 12) and its 10th in 11 games during the first year of head coach Alex Jensen’s tenure.
That’s the negative — and at this point, it’s become the expected for the Utes in the ultra-difficult Big 12.
But there were some positives, too.
Keanu Dawes had arguably his best game of the season, putting up 22 points and 12 rebounds while shooting 10 of 13 from the floor.
He also hit a pair of 3-pointers as Utah got off to a good start and led 12-8 early on.
Terrence Brown had to fight for his points, as he shot 6 of 17, but he scored 16 four days after being held to a season-low six in a home loss against Arizona State.
Brown also had a season-high tying four steals and three assists.
James Okonkwo, meanwhile, played tough inside and tied his career high with four blocks.
And the Utes’ defense, while allowing Kansas to shoot 50% from the floor, showed better effort than it often has this season, disrupting the Jayhawks on that end and forcing bad shots.
Utah also held Kansas to 16.7% shooting from 3, at 3 of 18.
Schiller said it was probably a combination of factors that contributed to a better defensive effort.
Among them, he pointed to being forced to play a bigger lineup with Obomate Abbey out for the game, as well as the energy of facing a top-tier opponent at a storied venue.
“Sometimes it’s one or two little things that change the big picture, right?” Schiller said. “Seydou (Traore) comes in at the two, which puts Kendyl (Sanders) at the three, now suddenly you’re matching up size wise, that piece.
“Then the other piece may be the energy, for sure, because adrenaline plays a big role, right? If you play in this building, it’s enjoyable.”
The Utes just couldn’t manufacture enough offense against a lengthy Jayhawks squad that held Utah to 40% shooting,
The biggest cold spell came in the second half, after the Utes had trimmed their deficit to two at 42-40 on a Brown layup.
Over the next nine minutes, the Jayhawks outscored Utah 18-4, ending any threats that Utah could rally.
At one point, even after the Utes had managed to stay within six, Kansas scored 10 straight to build its first double-digit lead of the day.
It was game over, as Utah never got back within single digits.
Big man Flory Bidunga paced the Jayhawks with 17 points, 10 rebounds, seven blocks and three assists, impacting both ends of the floor.
Darryn Peterson had 14 points, three rebounds, two steals and one assist, and Tre White added 16 points and six rebounds.
With Abbey out and the Utes even more short-handed along the guard line, that provided Okonkwo and Sanders (four points, two rebounds, one steal) some positive moments against their top 25 opponent.
The road doesn’t get easier for Utah, though, as it returns home to host No. 8 Houston next Tuesday (7 p.m. MST, ESPN) before taking a two-game road swing to Cincinnati and West Virginia.
With eight games left in the regular season and one guaranteed game in the Big 12 tournament next month, the opportunities to learn in real-game environments are starting to dry up for a Utes team that will need to retool this offseason.
Utah coaches want to make sure, amidst all the losses, that they can keep the competitive spirit going, particularly after Jensen used words like “quit” and “selfish” to describe his team’s efforts in recent losses to BYU and Oklahoma State.
“As a competitor, you always are disappointed in losing, and also the situation that we’re in. You don’t want to get used to losing,” Schiller said.
“You know, that is important, and one has to fight that. Having said that, I thought we competed very well.”