Utah falls to BYU in hoops on Saturday

It started really well for the Utes as they took on BYU in Provo, but things unwound for the Utes as the first half wore on. Utah took a 14-9 lead out of the first media break and really had some excellent ball movement and finding the right guy, with multiple open threes and dunks. Then Utah gave up a 15-2 run to BYU and the Utah offense really went cold, which it is prone to do, while the defense couldn’t guard a chair for a while. While Utah went cold, BYU hit nine of 10 shots, and was getting anything they wanted. Ultimately, it was that run in the first half that really put in the distance between the two that the Cougars needed, because Utah wasn’t able to did out of that hole.

Utah started the second half well, and seemingly figured out the shooting issues and cut the BYU lead down to 51-44 after Riley Battin drained his second 3-pointer of the half. A drive to the hoop from Rylan Jones and jumper from Timmy Allen saw the Runnin’ Utes cut the lead to single-digits twice more. Unfortunately, Jones and Allen were largely no shows for the Utes. They really carried the Utes in last years win over BYU, but were a combined 5 of 21 for 16 points. That’s just not going to cut it. Alphonso Plummer did what he could to keep the Utes in it with his 19 points, but not having those two big names contribute really hurt. Also, freshman Pelle Larsson looked like a freshman as he was held scoreless.

Utah was dominated on the boards, where they lost that stat by 16, and just couldn’t get anything going for most of the game, as they fall for the first time on the season 82-64. This is a good game to get under their belts, and allows them to make some adjustments going into a game against UVU next week.