From Deseret News archives:
End of the line: Despite effort, Utah comes up short against Kentucky, again
Utes struggle from the foul line, hitting just 14-of-28 shots
With its best chance to beat Kentucky after five failures over the past 12 years, the Utah basketball team played one of its poorest games of the season and lost to Kentucky — again — 62-52 in an NCAA third-round game before 16,239 at the Frank Erwin Center on Friday night.
Sure the No. 5-ranked Wildcats had something to do with Utah's poor play. But they weren't guarding the Utes when they missed 14 free throws, shooting 14-for-28, their worst night at the line all season.
The Utes also missed numerous open layups and inside shots. Ute all-American and possible national player of the year Andrew Bogut had the worst shooting night of his career, making just 8 of 19 from the field and 4 of 11 from the line. Bryant Markson and Justin Hawkins also missed at least a half-dozen shots inside five feet between them, going 3-for-7 and 1-for-4, respectively.
The loss ended the Utes' season at 29-6, while Kentucky improved to 28-5. The Wildcats will play Sunday afternoon in the regional final against Michigan State, which came back to upset the regional's No. 1 seed, Duke, 78-68.
Ute coach Ray Giacoletti said he was proud of his team's effort and said they did most of the "little things" his team can control. But he said the Wildcats "wore us down," and said free throw shooting was a big factor in the loss.
"If we hit some free throws it would have been a little different," he said. "But we didn't."
Despite his poor shooting night, Bogut still finished with his nation-leading 26th double-double of the season with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
"I had some good looks, I just couldn't knock a shot down," Bogut said. "I couldn't make a shot from anywhere. It just wasn't my day shooting a basketball."
Besides Bogut, the Utes got 10 points from Marc Jackson, but he also had a rough shooting night, going 2-for-6 from the field and 1-for-4 from 3-point range.
"It was one of those things," Jackson said. "Poor shooting nights don't happen very often. We just didn't shoot very well."
Kentucky played all 13 players and its depth wore the Utes down. Only two Wildcats scored in double figures with Chuck Hayes scoring 12 and Rajon Rondo 10. The Wildcats shot 61.5 percent for the game compared with 41.5 for Utah.
The Utes thought they had a great shot to knock off the Wildcats, who had beaten them six straight times with five being NCAA tournament season-ending losses, including the 1998 NCAA title game and a second-round game in 2003.
