Utes Finish Wooden Legacy Tournament With Loss To Northwestern

Nov 25, 2018, 2:14 PM

KSL Sports

FULLERTON, Calif. – The University of Utah couldn’t take care of the basketball as they lost to the Northwestern Wildcats 79-57 in the final game of the Wooden Legacy Tournament.

The difference in the game was Utah committing 21 turnovers with the Wildcats scoring 26 points off of the miscues. Northwestern turned the ball over 15 times as Utah scored only 11 points off of the turnovers.

Sedrick Barefield was the only Utah player in double figures with 15 points, including 3-of-4 from downtown. Timmy Allen added 9 points and Novak Topalovic chipped in 8 points.

Vic Law led the Wildcats with 19 points and Dererk Pardon added 15 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field.

It was an uneventful and sloppy start to the game for both teams with the Utes holding an 8-5 lead in the first 8 minutes of play. In that span, both teams committed 7 turnovers apiece.

Northwestern stopped the bad play as they jumped out to a 14-2 run during a five-minute stretch. Despite turning the ball over 13 times, Utah trailed by just four points, 28-24 at the half. Northwestern scored 13 points off of the Utes 13 turnovers.

Utah shot 44 percent from the field compared to Northwestern’s 38 percent shooting.

The Wildcats had a good start to the second half as they outscored the Utes 25-15 and had a 53-39 lead with 11:02 left in the game.

Northwestern took a 16 point lead with 7:30 left in the game but Barefield kept the Utes within striking distance with three straight 3-pointers.

The Wildcats pulled away from the Utes after making 8 of their last 12 field goals and picked up the win.

Utah fell to 3-3 on the season and 1-2 in the Wooden Legacy Tournament. They will return home to the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Saturday to face Tulsa at 3 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network.