Analysis: Utah is bounced from the Big 12 tournament by UCF after Knights dominate second half

KANSAS CITY — Utah’s appearance at the Big 12 tournament was a brief one.

While the Runnin’ Utes have shown a lot of fight over the last two-plus weeks after Craig Smith was fired as the program’s head coach, they’ve simply been fighting a losing battle.

That hit a capping point Tuesday night, as No. 14 seed UCF dominated the second half in knocking No. 11 seed Utah out of the league tournament in the first round by an 87-72 final.

“First of all, congrats to Central Florida. I thought we had a great start to the game and a real sense of urgency early, but the way we shot the ball tonight, you know, 4 for 26 from 3, and in a lot of ways that’s our identity and the shots didn’t fall,” Utah interim head coach Josh Eilert said.

“Consequently, on the other end it seemed like they were throwing it in the ocean. Congrats to them. They made a lot of plays and a lot of runs especially early in that second half that we couldn’t counter on.”

UCF overcame some early shooting struggles before it turned a 21-9 Utah lead into what ended up being a Knight onslaught as they warmed up from 3.

Keyshawn Hall nailed a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer for UCF, and that trimmed Utah’s lead to 40-39. The Knights, after missing 7 of 8 from 3-point range to start the game, finished the first half making 6 of 10, including Hall’s dagger.

From there, the Knights exploded ahead with a 24-3 run to start the second half.

“I felt we had to make adjustments defensively. I thought our staff did a great job of discussing that at halftime, things we needed to look at doing. I thought that was really good for us,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said, “and our offense was just very efficient.

“Our guys started finding where we could be successful within the offense. We talked about that at halftime, about what we could do and what we could try to take advantage of. I thought our guys did a great job of making those reads and giving us a chance to make high-quality shots.”

Utah tightened up, UCF got rolling and the tight game turned into a blowout.

“I think we were settling a little bit. We were being a little tentative. I went right at ‘em a couple of times in the huddle and was like, ‘Put pressure on the rim.’ These shots are not always going to fall, but we were tentative around the rim and I challenged several guys, including Keanu (Dawes) over here, KD, and he turned it up,” Eilert said.

“Top to bottom, I don’t think we had quite the sense of urgency in that second half. A couple guys did and we got production out of it, but the runs that they kept making we didn’t have answers for.”

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The Utes (16-16) briefly made things interesting, responding to UCF taking a 20-point lead by going on a 15-4 run to cut their deficit to nine points with 9:06 to play.

That ended up being false hope, as UCF recaptured the moment and again pushed well enough ahead that Utah didn’t seriously challenge the rest of the way.

“This team, I still stand on, is a really close team, one of my favorite teams I’ve played on. It’s tough,” said Utah fifth-year guard Gabe Madsen. “I don’t know how to feel right now.”

The Utes were down starting power forward Ezra Ausar, who injured his knee against BYU. The Utah staff monitored his situation, but he couldn’t go, and that left a big hole in the Utes’ production.

There was a bright spot: it allowed Keanu Dawes to earn his first start of the season, and he responded with a career effort. Dawes powered the Utes’ interior game by posting career-high with 21 points and 15 rebounds, including four offensive boards.

“He had another double-double tonight, I think he had (one in) three out of the five games,” Eilert said of Dawes. “I think that’s going to be his forte moving forward.”

Unfortunately for the Utes, they missed Ausar’s production — “It certainly played an impact because he’s been playing really good basketball for us,” Eilert said — and they struggled defensively.

UCF shot 54.7% for the game and a scorching 71.4% in the second half, as they scored 48 points after halftime.

Hall paced the Knights with 23 points, which included going 12 of 14 from the free-throw line, and Darius Johnson added 20. Moustapha Thiam posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Jordan Ivy-Curry had 15 points and a team-high three 3-pointers.

The Knights ended up making 10 of 24 3-pointers, while the Utes were a frigid 4 of 26 from long range.

That made Utah’s advantage in rebounding (40-35) and points in the paint (42-26) moot in the overall scheme of things, with how hot UCF was from the floor.

In addition to Dawes’ night, two Utah seniors also scored in double-figures. Madsen had 10, while Lawson Lovering added 11 points and five rebounds.

In a lot of ways, this game followed a similar pattern to Utah’s 11-point loss last Saturday at BYU, as the Utes took an early lead and showed some fight only to see their opponent heat up from the outside, get their offense rolling and run away with the game in the second half.

Both Madsen and Eilert expressed hope that the season might continue, if the Utes are invited to a national postseason tournament and the group has desires to keep this thing going.

“There’s been a lot of years you walk out there and it’s just a drag to be out there,” Eilert said. “I talk to a lot of coaches and they say that this time of year, but I have none of that whatsoever.”

Utah has shown up in recent NIT bracketology projections, though with a .500 record, that might be out of the question at this point. This year, the College Basketball Crown tournament is starting up in Las Vegas, and it’s a 16-team field that would include two Big 12 teams guaranteed, per a contract with Fox.

The question is, will there be a chance to continue the season? Or will the focus be on the future and where Alex Jensen can take the program as the Utes’ new head coach?

That’s an answer that will be known soon enough.