No. 12 Utah takes advantage of Washington State turnovers

SALT LAKE CITY – As the coaches emptied their benches while the final minutes played out in No. 12 Utah’s 86-64 victory over Washington State, the Utah student section chanted “fundamentals” at the visitors.

Those celebratory crows are seldom memorable and even less often substantial, but in this case the Cougars may do well to consider those taunts as friendly reminders.

The Cougars shot well from the field and outrebounded their opponent but were blown out because they did not do the easy stuff: Make free throws and take care of the ball.

WSU (9-9, 3-3 Pac-12) turned the ball over 17 times and took the ball away from Utah just four times, leading to a 21-1 advantage for the Utes in points scored off turnovers.

“(Utah is) a team that doesn’t make mistakes,” WSU’s Brett Boese said. “A team that capitalizes on your mistakes. They hit wide open shots. They moved the ball really well.”

Those fast-break layups meant Utah shot 48.3 percent from the field despite poor post play. The backcourt combination of Brandon Taylor and Delon Wright feasted on fast-break scores and the duo shot effectively against the 2-3 zone defense that WSU employed for most of the game, finishing with 18 and 17 points, respectively, despite taking just eight shots apiece.

“We’re not a team that can generate a lot of turnovers,” WSU coach Ernie Kent said. “What we can do is play solid defense and not give up easy shots.”

The Cougars made 45.7 percent of their shot attempts and hit 8 of 19 3-pointers. But they made just 14 of 27 free-throw attempts, despite a 6-for-8 night for Josh Hawkinson, who finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds to record his 11th double-double this season.

Hawkinson’s first two free throws came before the game even started because of a technical foul issued to Utah forward Brekkot Chapman for dunking during warm-ups.

“I’m just happy now that we’re enforcing all the rules of basketball,” Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said after the game. “It was very unique, for sure.”

The Cougars had success attacking inside early in the game as the Utes were without 7-footer Jakob Poeltl. Hawkinson and Railey were WSU’s second-leading scorers with 12 points each, behind DaVonte Lacy’s 15. The two post players scored 13 of WSU’s first 17 points and took 17 free-throw attempts on the night – although Railey only made 2 of 9 tries – forcing Chapman to foul out, while Dallin Bachynski finished with four fouls.

WSU outrebounded the Utes 35-30.

The Cougars trailed just 22-20 with 8 minutes left in the first half but were outscored 24-7 over the final 6:01 to head to the locker room with a 46-27 deficit.

“If we can’t get stops and get out and run, it becomes very difficult to manufacture the points that we want to manufacture,” Kent said. “So it really comes down to putting the onus on our defense to be a little tougher mentally and be a little tougher physically, too.”

WSU’s deft shooting – particularly in the second half – and an advantage on the boards kept the Cougars within shouting distance of their highly ranked opponents for much of the game.

The Cougars made six of their first seven 3-point attempts in the second half to cut Utah’s lead to 62-52.

Boese made 3 of 5 3-point attempts in the second half and finished with 11 points.

But Taylor responded with three 3-pointers in four attempts and the Utes made all 12 second-half free-throw attempts to rebuild their lead and eventually pull away, sending the Cougars away with a 22-point loss and some advice from the student section.