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SALT LAKE CITY — Ranked teams are hard to beat for a reason; and No. 16 USC was every bit its ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 Saturday afternoon in the Huntsman Center against a struggling Utah team looking for its first win in eight tries.
There were certainly moments where the Utes hung around and looked like they could compete against the Trojans, but those moments were short lived and sporadic as USC pulled away in the second half to win 79-67 and to give Utah its eighth-straight loss.
"I wish we could have played a little bit better," Utah head coach Craig Smith said. "We had some bright spots, but certainly not enough of them. Credit to USC; USC is a very, very, very good basketball team. There's nothing they don't have."
USC (16-2, 6-2 Pac-12) was led by Drew Peterson's 23 points, including a perfect 5 of 5 from 3-point range, and seven rebounds, and Boogie Ellis' 18 points, four rebounds and four assists.
The duos effort helped the Trojans build up an 18-point lead midway through the second half before the Utes battled back to make it a 9-point game. But that's as close as the Utes could get in the second half when the shots couldn't fall consistently on their end.
It's hard to win a game when your team shoots 36% from the floor. And though Utah (8-12, 1-9 Pac-12) had its chances at times in a tough game against USC, it was poor shooting effort that ultimately doomed Utah's chances of an upset win over the Trojans at home.
Smith continued his quick lineup rotation from the UCLA game throughout the first half and used 11 guys to mix and match effort on the floor. The quick rotations worked at times as Utah was locked in, but in other times there was little production on either ends of the floor.
At one point, Utah made only one field goal in 13 attempts as the Trojans built up a double-digit lead in the first half. The scoring drought lasted nearly five minutes until Gabe Madsen hit a contested fadeaway corner 3-pointer as the shot clock buzzer expired. The heave was a desperate attempt to get a shot off but to also stop the bleeding.
Whether by luck or good graces, Madsen's shot was what Utah needed to jumpstart the team's effort.
"Gabe was really good tonight," Smith said. "Gabe was really good all weekend. I mean 6 of 12 from the field. He hit some big ones that kind of got us back into it in the first half when we made our big run. The dude just knows how to play."
That spot turned out to be fortuitous for Madsen throughout the game, but mostly during the end of the first half in which he scored 11 points, including three 3-pointers in the corner, over a five-minute period to chip away at a one time 15-point first half deficit. And it didn't matter if USC guarded him or not, Madsen was going to get his shot off in the corner.
Madsen's effort, and a mixture of solidified defense on the other end of the floor, helped the Utes cut into USC's lead and down to two possessions at the halftime break, 35-30.
A pair of 3-pointers in the second half helped Utah, once again, cut into a double-digit lead by the Trojans. But Madsen's 20 total points on the night, including five made 3-pointers in the game, was not enough to will Utah to a win with only one other player on the team in double figures.
Lazar Stefanovic finished with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists; and Dusan Mahorcic, who got the start in place of Branden Carlson (surgery recovery), finished with 9 points and five rebounds in the loss.
