Utah drops head scratcher at Oregon State, 68-67

Well, at least they're consistent with not being able to take care of the ball, as Utah dropped to Oregon State 68-67 in Corvallis, giving the Beavers their first Pac-12 win. Utah turned over the ball 17 times against OSU, and had two awful stretches of basketball that doomed them. First, the Utes dug themselves a 10 point hole to open the game, with some ugly offense. Then, Utah proceeded to allow Oregon State to wipe away a 10 point deficit in the waning minutes of the second half, and of course, it was a turnover on Utah’s final possession that sealed the game.

For much of the second half, it looked like Utah was going to run away with the game, leading by as much as 13, but careless turnovers, bad fouls by David Collette, and poor defense did them in. Utah allowed OSU to shoot 57% in the second half, after only 33% in the first. When Utah was locked in, they were flying all over the place, but they got complacent with the lead. Kuzma had a nice return game, with 19 points and 9 rebounds, but those 7 turnovers of his are awfully hard to swallow. Also, once again the guards failed to show up. Not one of them were in double figures, and the senior point guard, Lorezno Bonam, only had 4 points on 4 shots.

After losing to the worst team in the Pac-12, and being swept in Oregon, the Utes are reeling, and are in desperate need of a win. Shoot, the NIT isn’t a lock at this point, especially with how they’re playing.

Hopefully they’ll get it figured out this next week at Colordao, when they should have some time to rest and practice.