Takeaway
Utah dropped in a trio of 3-pointers in a five-minute span late in the second half and pulled away from Washington for a 90-82 Pac-12 basketball victory Wednesday night at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City. The Huskies, done in by poor defense and the Utes’ 67.3 percent shooting, fell to 15-9, 7-5. They have dropped four of their past six contests (box).
Essential moment
After Washington’s Dominic Green nailed a 3-pointer with 9:10 to play to pull the Huskies within 64-63, Utah ripped off a 16-4 run that featured 3-pointers by Lorenzo Bonam, Brandon Taylor and Jordan Loveridge. A 7-foot center from Vienna, Jakob Poeltl scored nine points for Utah in the final four minutes.
Noteworthy
Freshman Marquese Chriss (10 of 18) scored 24 points and senior Andrew Andrews (8-for-16) added 22 for Washington, but the Huskies couldn’t do anything defensively, allowing the Utes to make 10 of 17 shots beyond the arc. Loveridge drilled five 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. Poetlt converted 11 of his 12 shots and led Utah with 23, and Bonam had 18 . . . Green had a career-high 13 points for Washington coming off the bench and Noah Dickerson added 11 . . . Dejounte Murray, who had a freshman school-record 34 points and 11 rebounds against Arizona State last week, scored four points on 2-for-11 shooting . . . Malik Dime led Washington with nine rebounds . . . The Huskies blocked six shots, three by Dime, and forced 16 turnovers, but allowed Utah many easy baskets, especially in the second half . . . Utah swept the season series,defeating Washington 90-85 in overtime in Seattle Jan. 24.
Words
“Defensively, we just weren’t very good at all. It was inexcusable, not acceptable. In the first half, we threw away about 10 points in transition and that could have been a turning point. We talk so much about being sound defensively and being disciplined, but we weren’t at all tonight. We will practice tomorrow and get our guys right for Saturday. I didn’t do a good enough job in this game of communicating what we wanted to do. But we are going to bounce back” — Lorenzo Romar, UW head coach.
Next
The Huskies play at Colorado at 11 a.m. Saturday on the Pac-12 Networks.
