BYU men’s basketball falls to the Utes at Huntsman Center

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The BYU men’s basketball team fell short, 81-64 against the Utah Utes Saturday Dec. 14 at the Huntsman Center. The Cougars never got their offense going against the Utes ultimately leading to their loss.

“We never really found ourselves,” BYU basketball coach Dave Rose said.

Anson Winder struggles to get to the basket between two Utah defenders. Photo by Ari Davis.
Anson Winder struggles to get to the basket between two Utah defenders. Photo by Ari Davis

The cougars scored first but after that they, the Utes went on a 10-0 run. Utah’s Jordan Leverage started out on fire and BYU did not have an answer for him in the first half.  From there BYU never got anything going offensively.

“Our shooting percentage was so bad, I think that guys tried to take it on themselves to maybe get a little too deep with the ball or get to the rim and score” Rose said.

At the half BYU trailed 42-29 to the Utes. The beginning of the second half BYU once again had a slow start allowing Utah to go on an 8-2 run. BYU could not stop the Utes defensively and finished the night shooting 32.8 percent.

With 8:28 left in the game Mika was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul. Mika’s ejection was ultimately the end for the cougars. Despite a small spark in the offense towards the end of the game the cougars fell to an 8-4 record on the year.

The Utes gave BYU the foul bonus early in both halves but BYU went just 17-31 on the free throw line which did not help BYU in mounting a comeback.

“They are a good team, and they were the better team tonight they beat us in every way, so props to them”  said BYU guard Kyle Collinsworth.

Collinsworth finished the night with 12 points and nine rebounds and led the team into the half with 10 points.  Tyler Haws finished with the team high of 14 points and six rebounds to go along with Mika’s double-double (12 points and 10 rebounds).

“We come out and battled. It’s just that we didn’t hit shots tonight, and we didn’t feel like ourselves” Haws said.

The cougars will look to bounce back against the undefeated Oregon Ducks next Sat. Dec 21 on the road.

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