UTAH UTES
Utah Basketball’s Long Skid Reaches 9 Games After Loss To Washington State
SALT LAKE CITY – The University of Utah basketball allowed a big run in the second half as they lost to Washington State 71-54, their ninth straight loss of the season.
Lazar Stefanovic led Utah with 11 points, scoring all of his points in the first half. Rollie Worster added eight points.
Branden Carlson returned to action after missing the last five games due to an appendectomy. He finished with eight points and two rebounds in 19 minutes on the floor.
Utah head coach Craig Smith went small with his lineup, bringing Riley Battin off the bench and Gabe Madsen made his first career start, coming off of a career-high 20-point performance against USC last week.
Tough one tonight. Back at it again Saturday. pic.twitter.com/5Zn4ooXNjW
— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) January 27, 2022
Turnovers Hurt Utah Loss To Washington State
After jumping out to a 6-5 lead in the first four and a half minutes, Utah struggled with four turnovers over a three-minute stretch and went nearly three minutes without scoring. In the first eight minutes of the game, Utah was up to six turnovers.
When the first half was over, Utah turned the ball over 13 times and WSU scored 11 points off of those miscues. The Runnin’ Utes also went the final 6:42 without a field goal made. Washington State had a 33-25 lead at the halftime break.
Lazar Stefanovic led Utah with 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field. Utah shot 47% from the field and 2-for-4 from beyond the arc. Noah Williams had 10 points in the first half to lead Wazzu. The Cougars hit 33% from the floor and just 4-of-16 from deep.
Washington State hit Utah with a 22-3 run in the first nine minutes of the second half and extended their lead to 20 points. Utah couldn’t really climb back into the contest. They were able to pull within 13 with 1:30 remaining in the game but that was when both coaches emptied their benches.
Utah dropped their record to 8-13 overall and 1-10 in Pac-12 play. They will head to Seattle to battle the Washington Huskies on Saturday, January 29 at 3 p.m. MT on the Pac-12 Network.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com, Co-Host of Faith, Family and Football podcast with Clark Phillips III and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports.
