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SALT LAKE CITY — With 6.5 seconds remaining in overtime, a tie game was in Utah's hands.
But the worst happened. Oregon guard Damyean Dotson stole the ball from Ute center Dallin Bachynski and took it all the way for a go-ahead dunk.
"It's one of those classic 'killer' plays that the last thing you want is to give them an opportunity," said Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak. "Obviously we'd love to have it over again."
"The first option was to go to somebody else," Bachynski said. "We did have a miscommunication on the play, but I guess we'll just have to learn from it."
With 0.6 seconds still on the clock, Brandon Taylor heaved an inbound pass to Jordan Loveridge for a desperation 3-point attempt that didn't go down.
The Utes had a similar opportunity at the end of regulation. Krystkowiak took a timeout with 7.4 seconds remaining in a tie game. The ball found its way to Loveridge, who couldn't knock down the open game-winning 3-point attempt.
Loveridge hit just 1-of-6 3-point shots on the night, which leads to the first takeaway from Utah's 70-68 overtime loss to No. 10 Oregon (13-0, 1-0).
It's one of those classic 'killer' plays that the last thing you want is to give them an opportunity. Obviously we'd love to have it over again.
–Larry Krystkowiak
3-point shooting must improve
Utah hit just 3-of-19 from beyond the arc, good for just 15.8 percent — its lowest mark of the season. In addition to Loveridge's struggles, Taylor also shot 1-for-6, Dakarai Tucker hit just 1-of-4 and Delon Wright went 0-for-2.
Though Oregon deserves credit for a solid defensive effort, many of those misses were good, open looks.
"We were just missing open ones," Loveridge said. "We just didn't knock them down. We have great shooters on this team, (the shots) just didn't go in tonight."
"Really, it was an off night for us offensively," said Krystkowiak. "It wasn't one of our better offensive performances. We missed some layups, we missed a number of open looks and missed some put-backs around the rim. Offensively we could have made a lot of improvements."
Utah's defense is elite
The Utes held the top-scoring team in the nation to 68 percent of its average points per game through regulation, and 20 points under its average despite the five minutes of extra time.
Related:
No. 10 Oregon beats Utah 70-68 in OT
Damyean Dotson stole a pass from Dallin Bachynski and raced untouched for a breakaway dunk with 1 second left in overtime and No. 10 Oregon remained unbeaten with a 70-68 victory over Utah on Thursday night in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.Utah's defensive prowess was evident from the opening as the Utes ran out to a 10-2 lead largely due to big plays on the defensive end. The team tallied nine blocks, led by Wright's four, with Bachynski and Loveridge each recording two apiece. Utah also stole the ball 10 times while holding the Ducks to just 38 percent from the field.
"I thought we guarded a lot of their actions pretty well," Krystkowiak said. "Guys were dialed into the game plan. (Oregon) is an elite team and there's a reason they're in the top 10 in the country."
The Utes show they will compete in the Pac-12
Even despite the rough shooting night and missed opportunities, this Utah team went down to the wire against not only one of the best teams in the conference, but arguably one of the best teams in the country.
Proving they could compete with the best in the conference was not a surprise to anyone on this Ute squad, however.
"It wasn't any surprise," Loveridge said. "Other teams are going to be surprised because they don't know our whole team. It wasn't a surprise to us going into the game. We know that we can compete and play with anyone in this league. We know we're going to have tough, down-to-the-wire games like this all the time. Hopefully next time we can take care of the ball."
Next up: The Utes (11-2, 0-1) have a quick turnaround as they host Oregon State (8-5, 0-1) Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. OSU opened its Pac-12 season with a loss at Colorado Thursday night.
"You can't just sit back and think about it too much," Loveridge said. "I'm sure it will be hard to put it behind us, but we'll have practice tomorrow and all our focus will be on the Beavers." 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
