Three Takeaways From Utah’s Loss To Coastal Carolina

CONWAY, S.C. – It was a disappointing performance for the Runnin’ Utes in their first loss of the season, falling to Coastal Carolina 79-57 in the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

Utah lost the game in the second half when they were outscored 43-27 and allowed Coastal Carolina to make six of their 10 attempts from the three point line.

Tune in tomorrow for 4 more exciting games across the ESPN family of networks. First game tips at 12:00 PM EST. pic.twitter.com/6gUMnd621G

— Myrtle Beach Invitational (@MyrtleInvite) November 22, 2019

Here is the Crimson Corner’s “three man weave” from their first loss of the season.

Both Gach Struggled

Through the first three games of the season, Utah played well based off of how well Both Gach and Timmy Allen played. Gach averaged 17.7 points per game entering the contest with Coastal Carolina. The sophomore finished with 5 points on 2-of-11 shooting from the field and 0-of-5 from beyond the arc.

It looked at times throughout the game that Gach was playing frustrated. He was trying to get shots at the rim and they weren’t going down and he tried to get going from the perimeter. A lot of the credit goes to Coastal Carolina and their stifling defense.

Turnovers Were Costly

The Utes had a tough start to the second half due to a couple of unforced turnovers. Some of them were bad passes by freshmen who are still learning to play at the next level. It was a learning experience for the young players especially in a tournament style environment.

Utah committed 15 turnovers, while Coastal Carolina capitalized by scoring 19 points off of those miscues. On the other side, Coastal Carolina turned the ball over 11 times and Utah had just 9 points off the those turnovers.

Facing Physical Defense

One of the big reasons why Utah couldn’t get anything going with their shooting was due to the physical defense that Coastal Carolina presented. It looked like Utah couldn’t get the shots they wanted and had a hard time getting to the rim and when they wanted to shoot from downtown, had to fire up some contested threes late in the shot clock.

Coastal Carolina’s defense was stifling enough to limit Utah to 33 percent shooting from the field and 18 percent from downtown (5-of-28).

Utah dropped to 3-1 on the season and will play Ohio on Friday in the consolation bracket of the Myrtle Beach Invitational. The game will begin at 5:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPNews.

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