3 takeaways from Utah’s loss to No. 3 Houston

Utah was a heavy home underdog facing No. 3 Houston at the Huntsman Center on Tuesday night.

The visiting Cougars lived up to that billing, delivering the Runnin’ Utes a 66-52 loss on their home floor in a game where Houston led by as many as 22.

Here are three takeaways that moved Utah to 9-15 overall and 1-10 in Big 12 play on the year.

Houston’s on-ball defense is scary good

The Cougars went on a 13-2 run in the first half, holding Utah scoreless for five minutes at one point to go up 33-18.

The Utes missed six straight field goals in that run, and Houston bottled up Utah’s leading scorer, Terrence Brown, for most of the half — he ended up with 3 first-half points.

He was 1 of 3 in the half, scoring on a driving layup with 2:07 until the break.

To start the second half, Houston forced turnovers on Utah’s first three possessions, and each led to a Cougars bucket.

Alex Jensen called a timeout to stop the run, but the damage had been done as Houston went back up 40-25 after the Utes ended the first half with a solid stretch.

The Cougars ended up scoring 20 points on 13 Utah turnovers.

Sharp shooting from 3 — and not-so-sharp for Utah

Senior Emanuel Sharp was putting on a 3-point showcase in the Cougars’ win, as he made six first-half 3-pointers, including four straight.

In the second half, he hit back-to-back 3s to push the Houston lead to 48-29.

Sharp ended up making 8 of 13 from 3-point range and finished with a game-high 27 points. The rest of his teammates struggled, as Houston shot 9 of 26 from outside.

It was a tough night for Utah from 3-point range, as the Utes were 2 of 17.

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Houston was simply too good outside a couple solid stretches from Utah

The Utes had their best few minutes of the game late in the first half, when the Utes used a 7-1 run to make it 34-25 at the half.

During that stretch, Houston was 0 of 7 from the field and Utah was able to dictate the pace of play on both ends.

The Utes also managed to make it more of an even game after the Cougars scored 19 of the first 25 points in the second half.

But those small stretches of competitiveness against a top-five team weren’t nearly enough for Utah.

Houston ended up shooting 43.3% for the game, and had 12 second-chance points.

The Utes, meanwhile, shot 44.4% as they fought to the end. Keanu Dawes led Utah with 15 points and eight rebounds.