BERKELEY, Calif. Going into Saturdays final road game of the season, its last chance for a conference road victory, the Utah basketball team shot the ball well (50 percent), took care of the ball fairly well (13 turnovers) and received outstanding individual performances from three players in particular.
The one thing the Utes forgot to do was rebound, and the result was an 86-79 overtime loss to the Cal Golden Bears at Haas Pavilion.
Utah had been rebounding the ball well in recent games outrebounding nine of its last 12 opponents in Pac-12 play and came in ranked fifth in the Pac-12 in rebound margin compared to ninth for Cal.
But the Bears won the rebound battle 39-33, with 18 of their boards coming on the offensive end. That gave them 20 second-chance points compared to just six for the Utes, and that was the difference in the game.
We got them to miss plenty of shots, said Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak. I thought we got out-toughed at the rim. Not limiting them to one shot was definitely the storyline of the game today. Weve got to play with a little more vigor than we did.
With the loss, the Utes dropped to 15-14 on the season and to 6-11 in league play behind the Bears, who improved to 7-9 in conference play. Utah has one game left, Saturday at home against Colorado, before going to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament beginning the following Wednesday.
The overtime loss was the first of the year for the Utes, who had won two overtime games earlier in the season, over BYU 102-95 and Stanford 64-56.
The defeat overshadowed fine games by Timmy Allen, who scored 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds, Alfonso Plummer, who came off the bench to score 23 points, including 8 for 13 from the field and 5 for 8 from 3-point range, and Both Gach, who had his best game in two months with 19 points and six rebounds. That trio accounted for all but 11 of Utahs points Saturday.
Utah had to play nearly the whole game without freshman point guard Rylan Jones, who has battled injuries all season. On Saturday, he hit the floor just under five minutes into the game along with a couple of Cal players. The Bears players quickly got up, but Jones was on the floor for nearly two minutes before slowly walking off to the locker room with trainer Trevor Jameson.
The injury appeared to be to his head, and when he came back for the second half, he was wearing some headphones around his ears, leading to speculation that he might have concussion symptoms.
However, as usual, Krystkowiak wasnt talking about any injuries afterward.
Its unfortunate, a freakish play with three guys laying on the ground. The simple physics is that hes not in a lot of those guys weight class, and when they end landing on top of him some tough things happen. Right now lets hope hes feeling better and can bounce back, because certainly were going to need him moving forward. We need him on the floor.
This season, Jones has had ankle sprains, a rib injury that kept him out for a game and most recently a shin contusion.
After several slow starts in Pac-12 play, Krystkowiak decided to change up the starting lineup, inserting Jaxon Brenchley and Mikael Jantunen in place of Gach and Riley Battin, respectively.
It didnt work right off the bat as the Utes fell behind 6-0 and 8-2 before scoring eight straight points to take the lead. All five of the Utes baskets were layups at the rim as they were determined to attack the Golden Bears inside game.
By halftime, the Utes led 28-24, thanks to Plummer, who scored 10 in the opening period and Allen, who had eight.
But once again, the Utes started slowly in the second half as Cal came out with seven straight points to regain the lead.
I still wasnt pleased they punched us in the mouth both halves, Krystkowiak said of the first and second-half starts. Were not coming out of the locker room with the kind of energy we need to fight and scratch. Weve got to be able to impose our will a little more on both sides of the basketball.
In the second half, the game was tied five times and the lead changed hands five times as neither team ever led by more than four until Cal seemed to pull away, going up by six at 67-61 with 1:49 left.
However, Plummer sank a long three with 10 seconds left to pull the Utes within one at 68-67 and when Paris Austin made one of two free throws with 9.3 seconds left, the Utes had one last chance.
Gach drove down the lane and was fouled with 2.0 seconds left, just before he made a basket. But with no continuation like the NBA, the basket didnt count and Gach coolly went up and sank both free throws to force overtime.
In overtime, Cal never trailed as former Wasatch Academy star Matt Bradley scored 15 seconds into the extra period and after a Gach basket, made two free throws to put the Bears up for good.
Bradley led the Cal scoring with 21 points, while Grant Anticevich scored 17, Andre Kelly and Austin each had 15 and Joel Brown 11.
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Utah basketball: Utes get beat up on the board, lose in overtime to Cal - Deseret News
