Utes Fall Short in Loss to Arizona State

0:00On March 1st, the University of Utah men's basketball team started strong against Arizona State on Saturday, but fell short in a 73-60 loss at. Deseret, financial arena in Tempe, Arizona. The Utes jumped out to a 14-5 lead early in the first half, behind solid play from Keanu Dawes and Terrence Brown. But Arizona State's zone defense took over, holding Utah to just 39% shooting from the field, while the Sun Devils hit 49% and drained. 9-3 pointers. Arizona State closed the first half on a 20-5 run to lead 34-24 at the break after Utah endured an 8-minute scoring drought. In the second half, the Utes had another dry spell of 3 minutes, allowing the Sun Devils to stretch a 6-point edge to 15 and seal the win. Utah cut the deficit to single digits a few times, but Arizona State answered every time with big shots. Coach Allege Jensen pointed to poor passing and selfish play as the biggest issues, calling it one of the team's worst games in those areas.

1:03Terrence Brown, Utah's top score, managed only 8 points after early fouls, while Dawes led with 16 and Don McKenry added 14. For Arizona State, Maurice Odom scored 15 points with four assists, and Santiago Trué posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. The defeat drops Utah to 10 wins and 19 losses overall. 2 and 14 in big 12 play, leaving them swept by the Sun Devils this season. Despite fewer turnovers than their last game, the Utes couldn't break down the zone and got outplayed on both ends. Utah wraps up the regular season with a home finale against Colorado on Tuesday at 7pm mountain time, followed by a trip to Baylor on March. 7th in the big 12 tournament where they're projected as the 16th seed. The focus now shifts to learning from these mistakes and building momentum.