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LOS ANGELES — In a contest that was seemingly over from the beginning, the Runnin' Utes fell 62-45 at USC Saturday night.
Sophomore forward Garrett Jackson led the Trojans with a career-high 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Sophomore guard Maurice Jones also put in 16, to go with five rebounds and five assists. Freshman guard Byron Wesley scored nine points with seven assists, five boards, and two steals, while junior guard Greg Allen also added nine.
USC (6-16, 1-8) jumped out to a 13-2 lead, and the Utes' second bucket did not come until nearly midway through the first half of play, when junior guard Chris Hines hit a jump shot with 10:11 left in the period.
That's as close at it got, as the Trojans continued to pile it on, going into halftime ahead 32-14.
Utah (5-16, 2-7) scored seven of the first 11 second half points, until Allen's 3-pointer ignited a 10-3 USC run to storm out to its largest lead, 46-24, nearly seven minutes into the final period.
The Utes made a late rally to cut the lead to 12 with 3:28 remaining, before Jones' 3-point shot initiated an 11-6 USC run to finish the game.
With the victory, the Trojans gain their first Pac-12 win of the season, having previously gone 0-8, and snap a nine-game losing streak.
Junior forward Dijon Farr led Utah with 12 points on 6-of-9 from the field, and a game-high eight boards, tying a career high. Junior center Jason Washburn scored 10 with four rebounds, hitting double digits for the 13th time this season. Hines also put in 10 points in his third-straight double-digit outing.
Junior guard Cedric Martin and freshman guard Anthony Odunsi both struggled from the floor, going a combined 0-for-10 and 0-for-5 from beyond the arc.
As a team, the Utes hit just 36.7 percent of their shots, including just 20 percent from 3-point range, while allowing an opponent's field goal percentage of 48 and 41.2 from downtown.
Utah managed to outrebound USC, 34-24, but only got seven points of production from its bench, and coughed up 17 turnovers to just five assists. The Trojans dished out 24 assists to only seven turnovers.
The Utes return home, still winless in contests played outside the Huntsman Center this season, after what may have been their best chance at finally getting a road win.
Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak thought his team just didn't show up.
"We laid an egg in the first half," he said. "We played as poorly in the first half as we possibly could. We couldn't pass and catch, we didn't play very hard, we had nine turnovers against a team that wasn't overly pressuring us, we had zero offensive rebounds — all of the energy stats were just goose eggs. It's a major setback for us. I'm really disappointed that we put ourselves in that position, but that's the game of basketball."
One issue Krystkowiak has had over the course of the season has been getting his team to consistently play with effort and intensity, particularly when things aren't going the team's way. Among his biggest disappointments Saturday night was the Utes' inability to play hard when adversity hit.
"The three things are there again: playing hard, playing smart, and playing together," Krystkowiak said. "Playing hard wasn't in our favor; playing smart — we couldn't make simple plays — and then you start growing apart when the game is that hard. It's a setback for me and I hope it's a setback for (the players) as well."
Utah will have until Thursday to regroup and bounce back from a rough road trip before hosting the Oregon teams at the Huntsman Center.
The Utes will play Oregon Thursday night and then Oregon State on Saturday afternoon.
