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It was almost a mirror image of what happened against Oregon when the Utes lost to Colorado on Monday. A quick start, great ball movement, building a lead, and then faltering and losing in the end.
The Utes knocked down four of their first four shots and took an early 8-3 lead. After a CU run, and some back and forth, the Utes had a 14-5 run that helped the Utes take a 37-27 lead into the half.
Timmy Allen and Alfonso Plummer had nine points each in that opening half, really pacing the Utes offensive attack. Timmy and Plummer ended the game with 19 and 12 respectively, and it was nice to see Plummer have a solid game after not getting much against the Ducks.
That 10 point lead by the Utes vanished with a quick 10-0 run by the Buffs in the first four minutes of the second half. CU extended that run to 15-0, and really never looked back from there. Colorado wasn’t able to pull away from the Utes at any point, but the offensive ineptness in the second half by the Utes really didn’t give much hope for the Utes to pull this one off.
In the first half, the Utes shot 55%, in the second they shot 33%. Shoot, the Utes held CU to 35% for the game, and it’s not like they lit it up in the second half, they shot 44% in the second half comeback. You just aren’t going to win many games when you can’t put together two halves of consistent offensive play. Again, Rylan Jones didn’t do much on offense, he did have four assists, but he had a big goose egg in the scoring column.. The Utes did a good job taking care of the ball, with nine turnovers, but they really need to figure out how to get some effective offense in that second half.
NOTABLES
The Utes fixed the turnover problem Monday, committing just nine mistakes but the problem on the boards returned with Colorado winning the battle of the boards 49-31 … Utah saw Colorado get a 13-2 advantage in second-chance points thanks to 15 offensive boards … Utah held Colorado to just .350 shooting and .263 from deep.
UP NEXT
Utah will look to bounce back on Thursday, Jan. 14, when it plays host to reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week Oscar da Silva and the Stanford Cardinal. Roxy Bernstein and Richie Schueler will have the call as the Utes and Cardinal tip off at 3 p.m. (MT) on ESPNU.