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Eugene, Ore. • The No. 9 Utes were "exposed" somewhat by Oregon State, said coach Larry Krystkowiak, but he's not sure if — given that they won — it stung enough to get their full attention.
Well, he has their attention now.
Utah (21-5, 11-3 Pac-12) looked out of sync against the defensive pressure of Oregon (20-8, 10-5 Pac-12) in a 69-58 loss on Sunday afternoon, and its answer was too often to attack from the perimeter, hoisting a season-high 29 3-pointers and making just eight of them.
Oregon, meanwhile, played with the frenetic energy you'd expect from a team on the bubble. It was Senior Day for Pac-12 leading scorer Joseph Young, who finished with 14 points, and the Ducks also received 19 points from freshman Dillon Brooks — his highest total in conference play, punctuated by a tomahawk slam over a helpless Jordan Loveridge that brought the Matthew Knight Arena to a fever pitch.
"Human nature of the whole thing is when you lose, you do have guys' attention a little bit better, and it's a humbling experience for our guys," Krystkowiak said of the loss.
Delon Wright led the Utes with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and was the one Ute to hit more than a third of his long-range efforts at 4-of-7. But he still agreed afterward with Krystkowiak's assessment — "I think we shot too many threes as a team," he said — and that players were open in the post.
Utah bigs Dallin Bachynski, Chris Reyes and Jakob Poeltl — the latter two picking up two early fouls — combined for just nine points in 44 minutes.
And when Utah did manage to attack the rim, Krystkowiak said, they "got all sexy with the ball" and missed easy shots.
The bigger picture shows that Utah can still earn at least a share of the regular-season conference title and a potential No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with home victories this week.
Said Krystkowiak: "We haven't paid much attention to rankings or seedings or anything like that, we just need to keep moving along here and fix what's broke."
So what's broke?
In the first half, it was Utah's caretaking of the ball. The scorers counted 11 turnovers and Krystkowiak counted 12, but either way, "We just put too much heat on ourselves with the offense," he said.
And while Utah's 27 first-half points were a far cry from the 16 they managed during a lackluster 47-37 win over the Beavers in Corvallis on Thursday, the story remained the same: Utah was flummoxed at times by zone pressure.
Oregon battled from 19-16 down to up 28-21, and were it not for a 9-second flurry in which Brekkott Chapman drove for two and Wright thieved the inbounds pass, setting up a Brandon Taylor 3-pointer, it might've been uglier at the break.
Utah cleaned up its possessions in the second half, but a new problem emerged: It was battered on the boards, 23-14.
The Utes clawed to within one after a Chapman free throw midway through the period and then again to just four down, on a Wright 3-pointer, with 2:18 remaining, but the Ducks, apparently buoyed by the energy of 10,725 supporters, kept their foot on the gas.
Wright also had five rebounds and three steals for the Utes, whose next-leading scorer was Loveridge, with seven.
Defensively, Krystkowiak was pleased that his team limited the conference's top-scoring offense to 69 — seven coming in the last 1:08, as Utah had to foul.
And it's not so bad that Utah got a taste of losing a close game, he said, after a season of lopsided successes.
"It's a new sensation, and we've got to be able to make some plays under duress next time. And we'll create that in practice."
Utah's opportunity to right its wrongs begins 8:30 p.m. Thursday, against Arizona State. Then, of course, at 7 p.m. Saturday, No. 7 Arizona visits.
Beat the Wildcats, and all is forgiven. At least for a week or so, until the Pac-12 Tournament.
Twitter: @matthew_piper —
Oregon 69, No. 9 Utah 58
O Utah goes 8 for 29 from 3-point range in its loss at Oregon.
• Freshman Dillon Brooks leads the Ducks with 19 points.
• Delon Wright leads the Utes with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting.—
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