Up until the final 3 1/2 minutes, the Utes looked up to the challenge against the team expected to win the Pac-12 Conference. Then the game the Utes scratched and clawed to climb back into ran away from them.
Utah rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to tie the score three times, but it couldn’t take the lead and suffered its first home loss of the season and its first loss of Pac-12 play in a 94-82 setback to No. 14 Arizona in the Huntsman Center on Thursday night.
Junior guard Sedrick Barefield scored a season-high 23 points, thanks to a career-high six 3-pointers (five in the second half). Barefield scored 20 points in the second half, while senior David Collette scored 19 points overall. Justin Bibbins (14 points, eight assists) and birthday boy Tyler Rawson (16 points) gave the Utes (10-4, 2-1) a quartet of double-digit scorers.
“We just got into that last media timeout with four minutes to go, and you can’t have costly turnovers,” Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak said. “You can’t have missed blockouts. … It was a miserable night, I thought, with effort.”
The Utes overcame a lackluster start and scored 50 points in the second half, led by Barefield’s hot hand. Barefield scored nine straight points during one stretch to pull the Utes within 61-59 after he sank a 3-pointer with 12:12 remaining. The Utes eventually tied the score at 70 and pulled even two more times in the final 6:07.
Down by five, Bibbins made a 3-pointer as Collette got fouled while vying for position under the basket. Collette went to the line and drained both ends of the 1-and-1 to tie the score at 77 with 3:45 left, but the Utes committed three turnovers and went 2-of-8 shooting in the final 3:03.
Wildcats freshman Deandre Ayton scored 19 second-half points on his way to a game-high 24 points on 10-for-15 shooting. Ayton also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds as the Wildcats (12-3, 2-0) dominated the glass, outrebounding the Utes 46-23. The Wildcats converted 14 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points.
“Critical rebounds and missed boxouts,” Barefield said of the difference. “They obviously doubled us on the rebounds today. … I think that was the biggest thing. Then just a couple turnovers down the stretch, that was what kept us from getting over the hump. It was tied up, and I just remember we missed a box-out and they put it back in. That just kind of sucks the life out of the building.”
The Wildcats scored 46 first-half points — the second most allowed by the Utes in any half this season — in taking a 46-32 lead at halftime. Arizona led by as many as 17 points in the first half.
Utes freshman forward Donnie Tillman played in his first game since Dec. 9. He had missed the previous four games with a sprained foot. The 6-foot-7, 225-pound Tillman, a spark plug off the bench to start the season, grabbed a team-high six rebounds and scored six points in 19 minutes.
“That was a bright spot, getting him back,” Krystkowiak said. “But without having a lot of time to practice and a lot of time to beef up in the weight room, if you don’t look like Donnie Tillman — you better start taking on a mentality like Donnie Tillman. Regardless of how big your body is, you better go start putting it on somebody because we can’t keep getting pounded on the glass.”
