Men's Basketball Falls to Hot-Handed Arizona on the Road

Thursday, January 16

Tucson, AZ

6:30 PM

University of Utah

10-6,1-3Pac-12

Arizona

12-5,2-2Pac-12

Utah

Arizona

Photo by: Alina Rogers

Men's Basketball Falls to Hot-Handed Arizona on the Road

1/16/2020 9:32 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Despite shooting 47-percent from the field, the Utah men’s basketball team fell to Arizona on the road, 93-77.

TUCSON, Ariz. – The University of Utah men's basketball team ran into a hot-handed #RV/RV Arizona team on the road and fell to the Wildcats 93-77 inside the McKale Center Thursday night.

Utah (10-6, 1-3 Pac-12) had a good start to the game, getting buckets from Riley Battin and Timmy Allen to keep things close at the first media break. However, a Ute shooting slump coupled with hot shooting from Arizona beyond the arc saw the Wildcats (12-5, 2-2 Pac-12) go on a 17-5 run and take a 52-28 lead over Utah at the break. Despite the Utes shooting 40-percent from the floor, Arizona was 8-of-14 from 3-point range and 54.1-percent as a team.

The Runnin' Utes started the second half on a good note and cut the lead to 57-38 on an 8-0 run thanks to a couple treys from Battin at the first media break (15:50). Both teams then went back-and-forth out of the break, but the Wildcats picked up the heat from 3-point range once again and pushed their lead back up – which forced a Ute timeout with 3:19 remaining in the game down 87-60.

The reserves came in out of the break and gave Utah some life, knocking down a trio of 3-pointers from three different players. The final 3:19 of action saw the reserves outscore the Wildcats 17-6.

Battin finished with a season-high 16 points behind three triples while Allen added 16 points of his own to lead the Utes while Rylan Jones posted 11 points of his own to go with five assists. Alfonso Plummer had nine quick points off the bench, knocking down 2-of-3 from long distance and 3-of-3 from the line. Jaxon Brenchley led the team with five boards while three other players had four.

BY THE NUMBERS
Utah is now 30-35 all-time against the Wildcats and 8-21 all-time on the road against Arizona … Utah is now 6-1 when scoring first, their first loss of the season when getting the first bucket … Utes move to 1-3 on the season when playing away from the Jon M. Huntsman Center … Utes are also 1-2 now when opponents score 90-plus points.

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Larry Krystkowiak
Opening statement…
"I'm convinced as my physician told me with all my knee injuries that if experiences don't kill you it's going to make you stronger. And, I trust that we got a sense of what a big boy basketball is like and what we need to do and what we need to clean up. It felt better I thought; we competed better, we did not quit in this game. We had some guys coming in off the bench that haven't played much and I thought they contributed. You know, get big Matt and Marc Reininger out there setting screens and some guys hit some shots. Hopefully we can get in game mode here and not that the season or the schedule lightens up… I don't want to discredit anybody that's coming up but it certainly isn't going to be the same category of what we've gone through."

UP NEXT
Utah remains on the road and drives west down I-10 for a Saturday night showdown against Arizona State. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. (MT) on the Pac-12 Network with Roxy Bernstein on the call alongside Bill Walton inside Desert Financial Arena.

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