Utah Drops Another Second Half Lead In Hard Fought Loss To Oregon

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah men’s basketball team had another second half lead before losing to Oregon in a hard fought game, 67-64 on Saturday night.

A questionable double dribble call at the end of Utah sealed the win for Oregon. Alfonso Plummer led the Utes with 17 points. Timmy Allen added 15 points, while both Pelle Larsson and Branden Carlson scored 13 points apiece.

For Oregon, L.J. Figueroa and Chris Duarte had 15 points apiece. Eugene Omoruyi chipped in 13 points and 6 rebounds. It’s Oregon’s seventh straight win over the Utes.

FINAL

💔 loss for @UtahMBB #GoUtes #Pac12Hoops pic.twitter.com/wsPLzEtalU

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) February 21, 2021

Utah Has Efficient First Half Performance Against Oregon

Just 15 seconds into the game, Branden Carlson left the game with an injury after falling on the floor when he threw down a dunk. Lahat Thioune replaced the sophomore. Carlson returned to the game just minutes later and had five points in the first half.

The opening half of action was very close. Both teams’ largest leads were three points. After struggling from the three-point line in the loss to Oregon State, Utah knocked down four triples in the first half versus Oregon. Three of them came from Alfonso Plummer. He and Pelle Larsson had 9 points apiece in the first 20 minutes of action.

Oregon shot 56 percent from the field and also hit four threes in the first half. The Runnin’ Utes had a 35-33 halftime lead over the Ducks.

HALFTIME@UtahMBB has another halftime lead over the Ducks.#GoUtes #Pac12Hoops pic.twitter.com/GUclcB43Vi

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) February 21, 2021

Free Throws, Turnovers Decide Outcome In Second Half

Oregon came out of the halftime break more aggressive and Utah didn’t respond. The Utes turned the ball over three times in less than three minutes. Then they went scoreless for three minutes. The Ducks had a five-point lead before Allen made a layup to stop the drought.

Fortunately for Utah, Oregon went on a scoreless drought for over two minutes and missed their next five field goal attempts. After exchanging points down the stretch, Utah ran into another drought of over three minutes ad Oregon had a three-point lead at the under-8 media timeout.

The Utes trailed by two points with under four minutes to play when Alfonso Plummer was fouled on a three-point shot. The senior connected on all three free throws to give Utah the lead. After taking a three-point lead, Oregon tied it up with a three-pointer by Chris Duarte.

Then Utah missed a layup and L.J. Figueroa made a three-pointer to give them the lead. On the ensuing possession, Plummer drilled a triple to tie the game with 1:34 remaining. Oregon took the lead back after Duarte made one of his two free throw attempts to put them up by one. Branden Carlson missed a hook shot in the paint, followed by a miss three by the Ducks.

With 27 seconds left, Plummer had the ball slip out of his hands and go out of bounds. Figueroa was at the free throw line but missed the front end of the one-and-one. When Utah had the ball, Timmy Allen lost control of the ball at midcourt and was called for a questionable double dribble. Duarte made both free throws and Allen missed the potential game-tying three-pointer.

Utah dropped their record to 9-10 overall and 6-9 in Pac-12 play. They will return to the Jon M. Huntsman Center to face UCLA on Thursday, February 25. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. MST on the Pac-12 Networks.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.

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