Comeback Falls Short in Loss to #14 Wildcats

Thursday, January 4

Salt Lake City, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

10-4, 2-1

Arizona

12-3, 2-0

Arizona

Utah

Photo by: Steve C. Wilson

1/4/2018 10:31 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Utah-Arizona | Box Score (PDF)

Utes erase 17-point deficit, but fall to Arizona at home

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah's Sedrick Barefield scored 23 points and the Runnin' Utes managed to erase a 17-point deficit, but the comeback fell short in a 94-82 loss to the No. 14-ranked Arizona Wildcats Thursday evening at the Huntsman Center.

Despite shooting just 37 percent and trailing by 14 points following the first half of play, Utah swarmed its way back into the contest thanks to Barefield's 20-point second half effort. Down by as many as 17 points overall on the night, Utah managed to comeback and tie the game at 77-77 with 3:45, but Utah would come up empty in 11 of its next 13 possessions, turning the ball over three times and then just going 2-for-9 down the stretch. Arizona countered over the final 3-plus minutes, converting 15-of-16 from the free throw line.

Barefield led the way with his 23 points for the Utes, but Utah had four players overall score in double figures. David Collette added 19 points, Tyler Rawson totaled 16 points and Justin Bibbins chipped in with 14 points.

Arizona's Deandre Ayton finished the game with a double-double, leading both teams with 24 assists and 14 rebounds. The Wildcats won the battle on the boards, out-rebounding the Utes 46 to 23 on the night.

Bibbins led the team with eight assists and Barefield dished out six assists on the evening. Donnie Tillman, who made his return to the court on Thursday, led the team with six rebounds and three steals.

Utah will break from game action for the next two days before hosting No. 4/6-ranked Arizona State this Sunday, Jan. 7. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. at the Huntsman Center.

GAME NOTES
• With the loss, Utah falls to 29-32 all-time against Arizona. The Utes are now 20-11 when facing the Wildcats in Salt Lake City.
• Barefield scored 20 of his season-high 23 points in the second half to register his second 20-point game of the season overall. It was Barefield's first 20-point game since scoring 22 points in the season-opener.
• Collette has posted double-digit scoring efforts in the last five games and for the 10^th time overall this season.
• Bibbins notched double figures for the fourth straight game and eighth game overall.
• Despite Tillman collecting just six rebounds, he led the Utes in rebounding for the fifth game this season.

POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
Thoughts on Barefield's shooting in the second half…
Well it was great and that is why we got back into the game, he got his stroke going and he has been shooting well in practice. He hasn't been shooting it well all season, [but] I reminded him of a guy named Brandon Taylor, a couple years ago I think, shot 20 percent in the pre-season and ended up being one of the league-leaders in shooting in Pac-12 play. I'd rather have guys struggling in the pre-season and stay true to how we are playing, defending, and all of those things, and then start catching some breaks. I'm convinced karma has something to do with that, you know it was a good night for him to get it going but we just didn't have enough of the other components.

On Donnie Tillman being the aggressive player on the team…
If you look at the games that Donnie has played, his best games are games that are big physical teams. The UNLV's, Butler's, and Missouri's; and he cannot play extended minutes. I though he got a little winded and missed a few offensive execution plays that we really needed and you have to have all five guys going, but I'm glad to have him back I hope his foot stay's out of the picture and he's able to keep building and his best basketball is ahead of him. I think he loves games like this, you know he is physical and you just have to make sure that everyone does what they do.

Arizona Head Coach Sean Miller
On the difference in the last five minutes of the game…
I don't know if anything really changed. It was just a hard-fought game. A very, very good crowd - a nasty crowd. It is something that you have to be able to deal with if you are us and I thought our guys did a nice job of handling that. We answered a number of runs that Utah made against us. Utah is a good basketball team. We didn't come in here and expect to blow them out. We expected a hard-fought game. It was really a game of two halves defensively, some of which I think Utah had a lot to do with. Some of which is if you have a 14-point lead on the road you have to understand you have to keep playing together and hard and if you don't, you are going to let that other team back in. I think some of that also took place for our team. All-in-all, it isn't easy to win anywhere on the road in the country, but especially here in Salt Lake City. We will take it and move on.

On the conversations on the sideline during the second half…
Really just trying to get to the next play. We were encouraging them to give great effort and do the things that make us a good team. Make sure we are taking good shots and defensively, be responsible because they have a number of different options but they are very organized on offense and they can pick you apart. There were times when they did that to us tonight.

On the key points in the second half…
I don't know if we were ready to go at the beginning of the second half and that's why I called a quick timeout and you could kind of see it. As a coach, I have been there more than our players have and you always worry when you have that 14-point lead that guys in nature just take the foot of the gas. When you do it, this is what happens. You know, Arizona State is a great team and they lost tonight to Colorado. So, on the road when you are ranked high, it has a whole different responsibility to it. It's not easy at all and it's a fight every night. We are thrilled to have won this game and hopefully we can build on it and learn from some of those things and be better there. We have a quick turnaround.