Arizona State’s zone defense trips up Utah in one of Utes’ ‘most selfish games of the year’ – Deseret News

The University of Utah males’s basketball staff obtained off to the begin it needed to at Arizona State on Saturday.

The Runnin’ Utes have been up 14-5 at the 15:03 mark of the first half, as Keanu Dawes and Terrence Brown lifted them to the massive lead at Deseret Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona.

Things fell aside after that, although, as Arizona State’s zone defense stifled the Utes a lot of the day in a 73-60 Sun Devils victory.

Utah ended up taking pictures 39% for the recreation and 34.5% in the first half, whereas Arizona State was 49.1% from the subject (53.8% in the second half) and made 9 of 17 3-pointers.

The Utes, too, had a pair of prolonged droughts in every half.

In the first half, Utah went greater than eight minutes between scores as Arizona State completed the stanza on a 20-5 run to take a 34-24 lead into the break.

In the second half, Utah had a three-minute stretch when it did not rating and the Sun Devils pushed their lead from 59-53 to 68-53 with simply 3:52 to play to sign the win.

“The problem was when we passed it. (It was) one of our worst passing games of the year,” Utah coach Alex Jensen stated in his postgame interview on ESPN 700 AM.

Again, Jensen noticed guys on the offensive aspect making an attempt to make performs occur on their very own.

“It was discouraging because I thought it was one of our most selfish games of the year,” he stated. “You got to use your teammates and if you want to be good, whether it’s individually, you need your teammates, and I thought we did a poor job of passing.

“I think we tried too hard to do it on our own and score.”

The loss leaves Utah (10-19, 2-14 Big 12) going into the ultimate week of the common season humbled after it had proven indicators of enchancment over the earlier two weeks.

Brown, the Utes’ main scorer, had 4 factors, two rebounds and an help in the recreation’s first three minutes earlier than selecting up his second foul with 16:55 to play till halftime.

He ended up with simply eight factors on 4 of 12 taking pictures, whereas including 5 rebounds and two assists.

While Dawes (16 factors, 4 rebounds, two assists) and Don McHenry (14 factors, 4 3-pointers) had stable days, it wasn’t sufficient for Utah, which was swept in the season sequence by the Sun Devils.

While the Utes solely had eight turnovers one recreation after giving up a season-high 18 in opposition to Iowa State, their offense struggled to assault the Arizona State zone and as a substitute let the Sun Devils dictate issues.

That had an impact on the different finish of the courtroom, as Arizona State took benefit on the offensive finish. Six of the Sun Devils’ 9 3-pointers got here in the first half.

Maurice Odum led 4 Sun Devils in double-figures. He scored 15 factors whereas additionally posting 4 assists, a block and a steal.

Santiago Truet added a double-double (12 factors and 10 rebounds) and three blocks, whereas Massamba Diop (14) and Anthony Johnson (13) additionally scored in double-figures.

“I thought we came out and we started out great,” Jensen stated. “We executed, played well, we saved, we passed, did a great job. The lesson to learn is if something works, keep going back to it, but unfortunately (we) couldn’t sustain that for very long.”

The Utes nonetheless had some struggle in them, reducing into the Arizona State resulting in a two-possession recreation 3 times in the second half.

Both occasions, although, the Sun Devils had a solution.

Lucas Langarita, the mid-year addition who had missed the staff’s previous 12 games, was a catalyst when Utah made it a 43-39 recreation 6 ½ minutes into the second half.

First, Langarita hit an extended jumper as the shot clock wound down. Then on Utah’s subsequent possession, he handed to Dawes, who minimize to the hoop and scored on a layup.

Langarita then rebounded a miss on ASU’s subsequent possession and shortly pushed the ball upcourt and located McHenry for a 3 in transition to make it a four-point recreation.

Langarita, though he confirmed lots of rust and turned the ball over twice, had two factors, two rebounds, an help and a steal in 16 minutes.

“It was nice to have Lucas out there today. I think he helps us because it gives us more depth,” Jensen stated.

Following a timeout, the Sun Devils shortly pushed their lead again to double-digits at 49-39 on a pair of 3-pointers after that Utah spurt.

Later in the second half, the Utes made it a six-point recreation at 57-51 and 59-53 on back-to-back possessions, utilizing a 7-0 run capped by a Dawes 3 to get again into it.

Again, Arizona State had a solution. This time, the Sun Devils used a 9-0 run over a 3:13 span to make it 68-53 with 3:52 to play.

“The difficult thing about this game is (that we) replicate the same mistakes you made in the first one (against ASU), and it’s just the mindset of, how do I fit in the group and not about what am I going to get out of the game today.”

Up subsequent for Utah is its house finale in opposition to Colorado subsequent Tuesday (7 pm MST, ESPN+). The Buffaloes are coming off a 102-62 shellacking in opposition to No. 5 Houston on Saturday.

Then the Utes will end the common season at Baylor on March 7 earlier than heading to the Big 12 event to finish the season.

With one week left in the common season, Utah is in line to be the No. 16 seed in the Big 12 event.

“Like I say, for me, for the coaches and the players, it’s another opportunity to learn, compete and get better,” Jensen stated, “and hopefully we can do a better job at not replicate the same mistakes we made.”