Sometimes in building a foundation, there’s one step forward, two steps back.
On Saturday night, the Utah basketball team took a step back again, though it came agonizingly close to earning a second straight win.
That would have been the first time Utah won two straight in Big 12 Conference play in the Alex Jensen era.
Instead, UCF beat the Runnin’ Utes 73-71 at the Huntsman Center when Themus Fulks hit two free throws with 3.7 seconds left to play.
It was a disappointing end to a week wherein Jensen’s squad has shown renewed effort, but has a 1-2 record over the last eight days to show for it.
“I thought we did a great job in the second half battling through it, but again, we can’t dig ourselves those holes in the first half. I thought our guys kept fighting,” Jensen said.
“... They fought and again, those are tough games that you hope you can eke out and I feel bad for our guys, because I think we had opportunities to do it tonight.”
The Utes came home from a trip out east where they had a chance to beat Cincinnati only to lose 69-65 after giving up a five-point lead, and then topped West Virginia 61-56 for the program’s first road win in 13 months.
The long road trip left Utah a shorter amount of time than usual in its prep for UCF, but in its third game in eight days, the Utes (10-17, 2-12 Big 12), who sit tied for last in the Big 12 standings, made their opponents earn the win.
With a break or two — and a bit better execution — Saturday night and in the loss to Cincinnati, Utah could be talking about a three-game winning streak.
Instead, Utah missed out on its shot to beat a team that is a strong contender to earn an NCAA tournament at-large bid.
With 7:04 to play after the Utes went on a 10-0 run to go ahead 62-59, it felt like Utah might earn the win.
At that point, the home team had fought to stay within striking distance of UCF (19-7, 8-6 Big 12), even as the Knights’ shooting percentage hovered around the 50% mark throughout the game.
But the Utes lost a battle of two teams taking shots back and forth at stealing momentum.
Utah’s last lead came at 65-63 with 5:59 to play, when Keanu Dawes hit a 3.
UCF responded with five straight points to go ahead, and over a five-minute stretch, Utah didn’t score. Still, with a gritty defensive effort and hustle on both ends, the Utes managed to tie the game when Don McHenry hit a 3 from the corner with 56 seconds to play.
That was the start of a wild final minute.
UCF regained the lead when Chris Johnson drove the paint then kicked out to Jordan Burks late in the shot clock, and Burks hit a 3 to give the Knights a 71-68 advantage with 31 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing possession, and following a timeout, the Utes went again to McHenry, who was fouled while shooting a 3-point attempt.
He made all three to tie the game again, and UCF has its chance to go back ahead with 13.1 seconds to go.
Utah, which had five fouls at that point, intended to use its remaining foul before UCF got too close to the basket, but Seydou Traore was called for a foul on Fulks with 3.1 seconds to play, and officials awarded him two shots.
The Utes had intended to foul early before UCF was able to get deep into its action, but the foul came in the lane.
Fulks calmly made them both, and with no timeouts remaining, Utah’s inbound play — which actually got Terrence Brown a decent shot from 3 — didn’t pan out.
“That was a mistake by our coaching staff,” Jensen said of the foul that gave Fulks two free throws to win it.
“I’ll take the blame on that. We had a foul to give. I feel bad for Seydou because I think we put him in a bad spot.”
UCF had threatened to blow the game open when it took a nine-point lead late in the first half, but the Knights, who were missing leading scorer Riley Kugel, never led by double-digits.
Brown and Dawes both hit double-figures by halftime, and though UCF moved its lead to seven points a pair of times in the first six minutes of the second half, the Utes’ resilience kept them close.
One of those times was when Brown and McHenry hit back-to-back 3-pointers to briefly make it a two-point game just two minutes into the second half.
Later, the Utes answered a 6-0 Knights spurt with the aforementioned 10-0 run of their own, taking the lead back at 62-59.
That set up the final minutes, when Utah had a couple costly turnovers that helped UCF maintain control.
The Knights made the Utes pay for committing 11 turnovers, as they turned those giveaways into 18 points.
“There’s a lot of little things — the live ball turnovers, I think, were just killers," Jensen said. “We warned that before the game, but if you give 18 points off of turnovers, it’s really hard.”
Utah countered that disadvantage by owning a 16-4 edge in second-chance points.
Fulks ended up with a game-high 24 points to pace the Knights, while adding four assists, a rebound and a steal to counter four turnovers.
“He was terrific. I thought he did a great job of stepping up, especially in with Riley out,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said.
“He needed to do more, and I thought he was prepared for it. He was aggressive, he got going early for us and set a tone, which helped us get off to a good start.”
Burks also finished in double-figures, with 14 points, to go along with four rebounds, four steals and an assist.
The Knights ended up shooting 52.6% from the field, including 7 of 16 from 3-point range.
Utah, meanwhile, shot 49.1% and 8 of 23 from 3-point range in the tightly contested matchup.
McHenry ended up hitting four of those 3-pointers and had 19 points, three assists and two steals for Utah, while Brown led the Utes with 21 points on 9 of 15 shooting and added four assists, to three turnovers.
McHenry shared what was going through his mind when he had his two chances in the final minute to tie the game.
“At that point, I’m just thinking about winning the game. I hit a big-time 3, good pass, then I got the (three) free throws at the free throw line,” McHenry said.
“I’m just thinking, ‘I got to hit him to win, for us to win.’ When winning is the driving force, it’s just (about) comfortably hitting those shots for sure.”
Dawes, meanwhile, put up his fourth double-double in Utah’s last seven games, cashing in with 15 points and 12 rebounds. He also had three assists, a block and three made 3s in one of his better games of the season.
Following its second close yet winnable loss in the past eight days, the Utes will get another chance to play again soon. They host No. 6 Iowa State on Tuesday (7 p.m. MST, FS1).
The Cyclones are coming off a 79-69 loss at No. 23 BYU late Saturday night.
“I’ll give (my guys) credit, because we as coaches try to portray it to them, just being steady, getting better every day,” Jensen said.
“I knew this one was going to be tough, because you have to travel, you get back late, and it’s just, it’s a mental (effort) pushing through, and they did in the second half. I’ll give them that, but it’s kind of got to start with that.”