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Berkeley, Calif. • On Friday, the Utes were outhustled. On Sunday, they were outclassed.
Utah took its second straight road loss to start conference play, but the path to defeat was different. While the Utes managed to compete against a talented Cal squad for most of the way in a 71-58 result, they fought a losing battle.
Cal was deeper, bigger and better.
The Utes (11-4, 0-2) didn't take the same kind of frustration away from being the 11th team to lose at Haas Pavilion this season, but nonetheless are staring down their first 0-2 start to conference play since the 2012-13 season.
Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak, who seemed fired up after falling to Stanford in overtime early in the weekend, was much more reserved Sunday.
"I thought the end of the first half and a nice little stretch up until the end of the game when it got away from us was decent," he said. "We were persistent and hung in there, short bodies with an injury and some foul trouble."
Utah managed to keep a lid on a few of Cal's scorers, notably holding senior guard Tyrone Wallace to a merely mortal 10-point performance, but not everyone. By the finish, freshman power forward Ivan Rabb had scored 19 points.
The Utes trailed for all but four minutes of the game, including the entire second half. Utah's only scorers in double figures were Jakob Poeltl — who shot only 6 for 14 against a strong, physical Cal defense — and Brandon Taylor, who had 15 points and five assists.
There were a few close calls for Cal as Utah didn't stop fighting back, but the Bears always rallied. A one-fisted Poeltl dunk cut the lead to three points with 8 minutes to go, but Jordan Mathews hit one of his three second-half 3-pointers in response.
Even as some of the 10,188 fans started emptying out Haas Arena when Cal took a late double-digit lead, the Utes went on a 7-2 run to come within six points with two minutes left. But Rabb closed out his superhero performance with a turnaround jumper to extend the lead, then the Utes had their ninth and final turnover, that led to a Sam Singer bucket.
With the home team leading by 10 in the final minute, the crowd gave a standing ovation — the Bears knew they had won.
The matchup with Rabb was difficult for Utah, which lost Kyle Kuzma on a hard fall with 16 minutes left, then lost Brekkott Chapman to foul trouble. Chris Reyes scored 8 points, but it was hard for anyone to stay in front of the 6-foot-11, five-star prospect who might be one-and-done in college.
"He had a nice game," Krystkowiak said. "One through five, they've got a really solid team, probably as good a team in the Pac-12 when you talk about talent level. It's really hard to identify how to put out one of those fires."
Meanwhile, the Bears found a way to limit Utah's top firestarter. While Poeltl had a team-best 19 points and 10 rebounds, nothing came easily.
Cal threw all its size at Poeltl early, and it worked. The Austrian big man was completely plugged up for the first 15 minutes of the game, missing his first four shots before finally scoring a field goal off his own off-target attempt. Cal 7-footers Kingsley Okoroh and Kameron Rooks played physical defense, their lanky arms seemingly in Poeltl's way at every turn.
Without its inside scoring, Utah struggled to get anything going: The team managed only 22 points and shot 29.6 percent from the floor in the first half (a season low).
But it turned around as fouls added up against Cal. Okoroh got his third foul with two minutes remaining in the half, then Rooks got his third a minute later. The Utes were able to finish the half on a 7-0 run, closing the gap to only four points despite their shooting performance.
It was stretches like that left Krystkowiak a little more sated, but with another loss — Utah's first consecutive losses in two seasons — that left him and Utah wanting much more.
Twitter: @kylegoon —
Storylines
R The Utes shoot only 38.5 percent from the floor.
• Jakob Poeltl shoots 6 for 14 for 19 points with 10 rebounds.
• Utah gets outrebounded by 11, and gives up 13 second-chance points.
More coverage
• Cal's front line — featuring 7-foot Kameron Rooks, 7-foot-1 Kingsley Okoroh and 6-foot-11 Ivan Rabb — overwhelms Jakob Poeltl and the Utes. > B2