Utah Basketball Suffers 8th Straight Loss, Falling To No. 16 USC
Jan 22, 2022, 6:31 PM
Utah Utes guard Marco Anthony (10) drives against USC Trojans guard Drew Peterson (13) during the game at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022. (Spenser Heaps, Deseret News)
(Spenser Heaps, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – The University of Utah men’s basketball team suffered their eighth straight loss, falling to No. 16 USC 79-67 on Saturday afternoon.
Gabe Madsen had a career-night for Utah basketball with 20 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the three-point line. Lazar Stefanovic added 10 points on the night.
For USC, Drew Peterson led the way with 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field and 5-for-5 from the three-point line. Boogie Ellis chipped in 18 points.
Branden Carlson missed his fifth straight game as he is still recovering from a procedure he had two weeks ago for appendicitis. There is a chance he plays next week against the Washington schools.
Dusan Mahorcic made his first start as a Runnin’ Ute against a very tall USC team.
Live look at @GabeMadsen53 🔥
He's got 17 points! pic.twitter.com/JNaN3Gsn7V
— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) January 23, 2022
Utah Crawls Back In First Half After Facing Double-Digit Deficit
To start the game, USC was doing a solid job defensively disrupting Utah’s offensive sets. But the Runnin’ Utes were able to get to the rim and score with hustle plays. They started 4-of-7 from the field in the first six minutes.
Utah had the lead at the first media timeout but USC came out of the break on an 8-0 run and was up 16-11. After getting three points to stop the run, Utah went on another scoring drought of over three minutes. The Trojans had a 22-14 lead with 7:41 remaining in the first half.
To that point, Utah head coach Craig Smith played 11 guys. USC’s run reached 11-0 and had a 29-14 lead before Gabe Madsen hit an impressive corner three-pointer over Isaiah Mobley, hoping to give the Runnin’ Utes some life.
Mobley made all three of his free throws at the other end but Madsen answered with another triple. USC didn’t score in the last two minutes of the first half. Madsen hit another corner three-pointer in the final minute and the Trojans took a 35-30 lead into the locker room.
Madsen had 11 points to lead the Utes in the first half. Boogie Ellis with 10 points and Drew Peterson with 10 points led the Trojans in the first 20 minutes.
Utah Sees Offense Struggle In Second Half To USC
Utah was hanging with USC in the first four minutes but in the three minutes after that, the Trojans went on a 12-2 run and had their largest lead of the game to that point. USC was up 54-38 with 13:14 remaining in the game.
Utah was still within striking distance with 7:26 remaining, trailing USC 61-49 but they needed to get a run going. That run had chances of coming to fruition but the momentum couldn’t stay on Utah’s side.
The Runnin’ Utes dropped their record to 8-12 overall and 1-9 in Pac-12 play. They will hit the road beginning on Wednesday, January 26 against Washington State at 8 p.m. MT on
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com, Co-Host of Faith, Family and Football podcast with Clark Phillips III and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports.
