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SALT LAKE CITY — With a late tipoff, a six-game losing skid and the No. 9 team coming to the Huntsman Center, many would be hard pressed to believe the Runnin' Utes could contend against UCLA, a team that went to the Final Four last season and returned much of the same roster.
And for the first couple minutes of the game, it was easy to see why. The Bruins looked every part of a top-10 team ready to notch another victory on the figurative belt of the season en route to another deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
NBA prospect Johnny Juzang had 11 of the team's first 15 points and the Bruins made four of their first five baskets (80%) to quickly jump out on top of Utah Thursday night. But the law of averages kicked in quickly and the Bruins missed four of their next five shots as Utah hit a pair of 3-pointers to cut into the early lead.
Utah used that short-lived shooting slump by UCLA to battle back into the game to turn the Pac-12 tilt into a rock fight — with several refs whistles to help the chaos — of a game that finished with 10 lead changes. In the end, though, the Bruins came up on the winning end in a 63-58 victory.
"I'm unbelievably proud of our kids," Utah head coach Craig Smith said. "Gave ourselves every opportunity to win, played a very complete game on both sides of the floor."
After taking a 3-point lead on a Both Gach 3-pointer with 5:23 left to play in regulation, UCLA (12-2, 4-1 Pac-12) whittled away the lead in what would be a 7-point swing over a three-minute period.
Utah (8-11, 1-8 Pac-12) trailed by 2 points with 30.7 seconds left in the game, but a charging call on Gach killed the momentum for the home team that got the Huntsman Center rocking from the 7,785 fans in attendance. UCLA's Tyger Campbell made one of two free throws on the other end to make it a 3-point game.
"Things didn't go in our favor, and I think that was pretty clear," Smith said of his team's ability to fight through some officiating calls he said he disagreed with. "You just feel for your guys. I understand how it works sometimes. But I guess we'll watch it on the film and not just on the replay.
"But proud of our guys. Sometimes when things don't go your way with things out of your control officiating, it's easy to mope and pout and whine, and our guys had NBA — next best action — and just kept on truckin'."
Looking to tie up the game, the Utes had two open 3-point looks — the first a side-step corner 3-point attempt by Gabe Madsen and an even better look from the top of the key from Lazar Stefanovic — with time expiring, but each attempt rimmed out to end Utah's hopes of an upset victory.
"I don't shoot a ball if I don't think it's going to go in," said Stefanovic, who finished with a team and career high 18 points, including four of the team's 10 3-pointers on the night.
"That's what basketball is sometimes: ball goes in, sometimes it goes out," he added. 'It's really not a big difference if you're gonna win and lose. Today the ball didn't go in. Who knows what would have happened if the ball went in."
As devastating as it was to not go in for Utah, Smith said he was pleased with the wholesale effort from his team, especially on a night where his team committed only 11 turnovers and had 14 assists on the team's 18 made baskets. But more importantly, the team was effective on defense and held one of the best shooting teams in the country to only 63 points.
"We've just got to keep getting better and find a way to win," Smith said. "And we're not light on losing — fully expected to win this game tonight — but I'm incredibly proud of how hard we played and the way we executed for most of the night.
"Hopefully we can sustain that and keep climbing the ladder and keep getting better and keep fighting for everything."
Juzang finished with a game-high 28 points, including 3 of 5 from the 3-point line, in a game where he was the majority of the Bruins offense as his team struggled to contribute for much of the night. Jules Bernard added 12 points and seven rebounds in the victory as the only other Bruins player to score in double figures.
Utah was, once again, without Branden Carlson as he recovers from an appendectomy. The starting center has missed six games this season to health and safety protocols related to COVID-19 or surgery for appendicitis. Carlson is expected to miss Utah's Saturday game against USC, but could return to the lineup in the coming days.
In Carlson's absence, Smith mixed up his lineup Thursday night and subbed out players at a quick pace to keep players fresh and engaged in the action against a tough UCLA team. He said it's a strategy that he'll "strongly look at" moving forward to reward players that are engaged and performing.
