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TEMPE, Ariz. — Utah center Jason Washburn was having a career night Wednesday at Arizona State, but he couldn't get his most important shot to fall.
The senior took the inbounds pass with four seconds left in overtime, the Utes down by one. His 12-footer came off the front of the rim, where freshman forward Jordan Loveridge was there for the tip — but couldn't get it to fall down the cylinder, and the Utes suffered a narrow 55-54 defeat.
"This hurts," Washburn said. "To lose a game like this that we feel we should’ve won really hurts. I don’t know. We have to go back and look at the film, see what more we could’ve done. Right now, it’s hard."
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The Utes had trailed 53-51 until senior guard Jarred DuBois nailed a deep 3-point shot to give Utah the lead, 54-53, with 41 seconds left in the extra period. But Jahii Carson answered with a quick transition layup for the Sun Devils, tipping the scale back in ASU's favor, and Utah was unable to tip it back.
Senior forward Carrick Felix led Arizona State with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Carson, a freshman guard, scored 15 with four assists.
Washburn led the Utes with 19 points and a career-high 17 boards. DuBois added 12, while Loveridge finished with nine points and 11 rebounds.
"Wash was tremendous," said Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak. "He was locked in tonight for us offensively from the beginning. He did a great job defensively and would have loved to see the exclamation point there at the end and win the game. He put us on his shoulders and carried us with a number of blocked shots as well."
The contest remained close for its duration, with neither team leading by any more than six points at any point.
The Utes found themselves down by five with under 10 minutes remaining in the game, before going on a 6-0 run to take the lead — all six points scored by Washburn.
Later, they were down by two with under two minutes to go, when Washburn came up big again, recording an And-1 to put Utah back on top with 1:37 left.
Utah then led by three points after Loveridge sunk two free throws. But the Utes gave up a key offensive board on the other end, which led to a game-tying 3-pointer by Carson, ultimately sending the matchup into overtime — where the Sun Devils prevailed.
The Utes got it done on the defensive end, holding Arizona State to just 37.1 percent from the field and 20 points under its season average.
"We switched a lot of the pick-and-rolls, so we had smaller guys on their big people," Krystkowiak said. "It’s one of the choices that we made and that we have to live with. I was happy with the defense. We held them to their lowest point total in this building."
But on the offensive side, Utah struggled for much of the night, shooting just 34.5 percent, including 27.3 percent from beyond the arc.
"We need to probably do a little better offensively," Washburn said. "We had some questionable shots but that's the nature of basketball, especially on the road. We have to keep fighting like we did tonight. But we made mistakes tonight, or else we would be here talking in a little better circumstance."
The battle of the Bachynski brothers was a key storyline heading into this game.
Jordan, the older of the two, started for ASU and played 31 minutes. The junior scored 14 points on 7-for-10 shooting, with eight rebounds and a block.
Dallin played just six minutes off the bench for Utah, throwing down his only shot attempt after a slick drive right past his older brother. The sophomore found himself in foul trouble, but did manage to tally an assist and a rebound during his short stretch of play.
With the loss, the Utes fall to 0-1 for the infant Pac-12 season and 1-3 on the road in 2012-13.
"I’m proud of the guys, they really put forth a great effort tonight, and they played hard,' Krystkowiak said. "We know what we need to do and we will clean that up. We were competitive on the road in our first Pac-12 game of the year. It's on to the next one and I'm a little disappointed, not frustrated. We will tinker with some things and we'll get back in the saddle tomorrow. That's the good thing about this conference. You have another chance to prove yourself."
They will look to bounce back on Saturday afternoon, but it doesn't get any easier. Utah will head to Tuscon to face No. 3 Arizona, who is 12-0 so far this season. That contest tips off at 3 p.m. MST on the Pac-12 Network and on the radio at 700 AM.
Tyson Maddy has covered the University of Utah football and men's basketball teams as a contributing writer for KSL.com Sports since 2011. Follow his Utes coverage on twitter @Tyson_Maddy
