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LAS VEGAS — The offensively minded Utes are back and taking care of business.
Utah was down by five points at halftime to Stanford, but outscored the Cardinal by 29 points in the second half in a dominant performance for its first victory of the Pac-12 tournament.
The strong second-half offensive performance was in large part to Utah’s focused effort of defense, according to head coach Larry Krystkowiak.
“I thought it all started with our defense. And when you play as hard as we did defensively, the rim opened up,” Krystkowiak said following an 80-56 victory. “Offensively we hit a bunch of 3's. (We) outrebounded them by 20 or something in the second half and shared the basketball. We had great performances by a bunch of people.”
“I think the biggest thing that helped our offense was our defense,” Jordan Loveridge said. “It’s a lot easier when you’re getting stops, and you’re pushing it, and you’re sharing the ball, and you’re just having fun when you get stops. When you get multiple stops and you get to come down on offense, and you’ve got numbers, it makes offense a lot easier.”
Freshman center Jakob Poeltl stepped up in a big way for the Utes, adding 16 points to an already strong performance from Loveridge and Delon Wright’s combined 38 points.
Poeltl's size and aggressiveness made it difficult on the Cardinal in the second half down in the post, forcing Stanford’s Stefan Nastic to foul out and Chasson Randle to earn a flagrant foul in a rare form of frustration from the senior guard.
I think the biggest thing that helped our offense was our defense. It's a lot easier when you're getting stops, and you're pushing it, and you're sharing the ball, and you're just having fun when you get stops. When you get multiple stops and you get to come down on offense, and you've got numbers, it makes offense a lot easier.
–Jordan Loveridge
“He’s hard to guard,” Wright said of Poeltl. “He rebounds and he blocks shots for us. We really need him to stay on the floor and be that force for us.”
Wright, too, was key to Utah’s offensive success, leading the team with 20 points on 4-of-4 shooting behind the arc. He added seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks in the win. But more importantly, Wright was the driving factor leading Utah’s second-half charge.
“The team kind of needed it,” Wright said. “We were kind of sluggish a little, so I just tried to hit some shots and rebound and get some assists and try to get things going offensively and defensively.”
Going into halftime, Utah was -9 in the rebounding margin but outrebounded the Cardinal 29-5 in the second half.
“I had no idea that there was that much disparity in the rebounding between those two halves,” Krystkowiak said. “But it’s kind of an indication or an example of what happens when you really get after it defensively.”
“Yeah, we’ve had our struggles. But we knew if we got multiple stops in a row, we have a chance in any game, especially when we rebound and limit them to one shot,” Loveridge said. “We should have a chance in any game we play.”
Although Utah seemed to rebound from its so-called slide late in the season, the Utes will be forced to address a surging Oregon Ducks team that has won 19 of its last 24 games and features the Pac-12 Player of the Year in Joseph Young.
“They’re playing with an awful lot of confidence right now, and its a scrappy bunch,” Krystkowiak said.
Utah will play Oregon Friday night at the MGM Garden Arena at 9:30 p.m. MST on ESPN in the semifinal round of the Pac-12 tournament. The winner will play the winner of Arizona and UCLA, who will play at 6 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks.
