Oregon State pressures its way past Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah committed a season-high 23 turnovers in Saturday afternoon's 76-58 Pac-12 loss to Oregon State in the Huntsman Center.

The Utes struggled mightily against the Beavers' pressure, and they had the ball stolen 16 times.

"No disrespect to our players, but I thought we played scared — waiting for someone else to make a move and make a play," Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said while noting that Oregon State is team recruited to length in a 1-3-1 half-court trap scheme.

"It's a lot like a shark. If they get a little sniff of blood in the water then it's just going to become magnified and that much harder to deal with," he said.

It wasn't exactly "Jaws," although it sounded a lot like it in Krystkowiak's post-game remarks.

"We had a timeout one time (and) we had like three guys in our huddle that I thought were going to faint. They were as pale as a ghost," he said. "To me that's an indication that there's not quite enough blood flowing to the brain. I don’t know what shut down, but we looked very scared and out of sorts."

As such, the Utes (5-18, 2-9) never held a lead and shot just 40 percent (18-of-45) from the field in losing their fourth straight game.

"We had trouble executing," said Utah center Jason Washburn. "They bothered us a little bit and we didn't do what we needed to do in that type of pressure to make the right plays."

The Utes turned the ball over 13 times in the decisive first half. They trailed 38-25 at halftime, once going 5:27 without scoring.

"It set the tone. We got a lot of steals in the first half and some easy buckets," said Oregon State guard Jared Cunningham. "Going into halftime, we had a comfortable lead so we didn't want to lose that. We just wanted to come out in the second half and just play harder."

The Beavers (14-8, 4-6) reeled off 13 straight points during the stretch to take a 29-15 advantage with 5:19 remaining in the half.

Utah responded with a three-point play by Washburn on the ensuing possession. His dunk on the play was the only field goal the Utes had over the final 9:24 of the decisive half.

By the time the intermission rolled around, the Beavers had outscored the Utes 26-8 in the paint, 13-2 off turnovers and 10-0 on fast breaks. Oregon State took 20 more shots from the field (38-18) than Utah and pulled down 13 offensive rebounds.