For the first time in the Alex Jensen era, the Utah basketball home fans were truly restless. The Runnin’ Utes, despite being the favorite, were getting outhustled and outplayed on their home court at the Huntsman Center Thursday night. Visiting Cal Poly was the confident team that was playing more in rhythm. It led to frustration emanating from the crowd, even as early as the first half, as the Runnin’ Utes eventually lost 92-85 to the Mustangs. That gives Utah a 5-1 record, the first blemish in a six-game home stand to start the year against a team that had a record of 2-3 entering the night. “Just disappointed,” Jensen said. “I think how we started out the game defensively, (it was) hard to give up 50 points (in the first half). Give credit to Cal Poly, they did a good job tonight. Our guys got to just individually take the challenge to guard, to play defense. “We told them they were going to come fast, they were going to shoot a lot of 3s, so we had to talk and get back and keep the ball out of the paint, and I think we kind of eased our way into the game.” How the game transpired Utah led for a total time of 2: 06 against its Big West Conference opponent. The Utes took an early 5-0 lead, but then Cal Poly seized the lead and never gave it back with a 13-2 run. After Utah pulled within 13-11, Cal Poly went on a 9-1 run to build the game’s first double-digit lead at 22-12. The Utes trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half before going into the break trailing 50-39. There were a few times when Utah made things interesting in the second half, but it couldn’t complete the rally. At one point, Utah had the ball and trailed 68-62 with a chance to cut into the lead, but then Cal Poly responded with five straight points to push its advantage back into double-digits. Later, the Utes got a four-point play from Jacob Patrick, then a Cal Poly turnover on the other end sent the game into the under-8 media timeout with the Mustangs leading 73-70. Utah had a few possessions after that to either tie the game or cut it even further but couldn’t capitalize, and eventually Hamad Mousa hit a 3 to double the Mustangs’ lead. The Utes made it a two-point game at 76-74 on a Terrence Brown layup, but then things fell apart again as Cal Poly scored 12 of the game’s next 14 points and held off any Utah rallies down the stretch. It was that kind of a night for the Utes there was just no consistent play. Utes’ flat start and porous defense were too much Utah’s defense has left something to be desired in the early portion of the season, but Thursday’s effort was the worst of the bunch. The Utes simply were giving up too many good looks, and Cal Poly made them pay. Cal Poly made 3 after 3 in the first half, shooting 9 of 17 from outside over the first 20 minutes. The Mustangs finished the night hitting 14 of 25 3-pointers. Utah’s coach stressed the importance of communicating, and how it’s a struggle for his team to consistently do at this point. “Continuity is a wonderful thing. It’s a luxury that you’d love to have on a basketball team,” Jensen said. “. We have quiet guys, but you can’t be quiet on the court, right? Whether you’re selfish or not, you got to communicate.” Cal Poly shot 54. 8% in the first half and 50% overall, and for a while, it appeared Cal Poly might break the century mark by night’s end. Cayden Ward and Mousa led that offensive effort for the Mustangs, as they scored 28 and 26 points, respectively. Cal Poly also outrebounded Utah 42-32 and had an 11-6 advantage in second-chance points. “There’s no excuse to get out rebounded by 10 tonight,” Jensen said. The Utes let Cal Poly take control early and build some momentum. For the Mustangs, that was enough to help them believe and eventually pull out the win. Brown said one takeaway for the Utes from the loss is taking pride in stopping the ball defensively. “(Coach) said effort and talking is things you can control,” Brown said. “He said, ‘Anybody in the world could do that when they play basketball,’ so I feel like that’s the bare minimum we should be doing when we come into practice, when we come into games, is just talking on fast breaks. “They get a lot of fast breaks because we weren’t talking or we weren’t finding our man, so (it’s) just really (about) communicating and being able to step up and stop somebody.” Utes’ second-half effort wasn’t consistent enough Jensen was more impressed with how his team came out of the locker room at halftime, as Utah used an early 7-0 spurt to get the deficit back to single digits. There were two instances in the second half when Utah could have taken momentum back by gaining the lead. The Utes never did, though. The first came when Utah trimmed its deficit to 73-70 on the aforementioned Patrick four-point play. Over the next two minutes, the teams took turns coming up with empty possessions, before Mousa hit a 3-pointer to make it 76-70. Brown brought the Utes back within a possession, scoring the next four points for Utah on a pair of free throws that were awarded on a fast-break attempt, as well as a layup that cut the deficit to 76-74, the closest Utah had been since the score was 13-11. Brown was the Utes’ best source of offense, as he finished with a game-high 29 points while hitting 11 of 18 shots from the field. Don McHenry added 16 points, and Keanu Dawes nearly had a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. Jensen saw defensive communication and effort in the second half that helped Utah climb back into the contest. “When one guy starts to do it, we made our run. That’s what happened, we made our run,” he said. “We started talking, we were physical, we got the rebounds.” After Utah made it 76-74 with 5: 57 to play, though, Cal Poly had a quick answer. The Mustangs scored seven straight in a minute and a half, then pushed that out to a 12-2 run to give Cal Poly an 88-76 lead with just over two minutes to play. At that point, many of the Utah fans were streaming to the exits. “I think we just got stagnant,” Dawes said of the opportunity Utah squandered to capture the lead. “We didn’t really start changing the size of the floor and moving the ball, kind of what got us to the point where it’s a close game. “We just went back to what we were doing in the first half, to where they got that lead on us.” What it means for the Utes After playing its first six games at the friendly confines of the Huntsman Center, Utah is hitting the road for the first time during Thanksgiving week. The Utes are headed to Palm Deseret, California, to play in the Acrisure Series, where they’ll face Grand Canyon next Tuesday and either Ole Miss or Iowa on Wednesday. After that, Utah will play its first true road game at Cal on Dec. 2. Thursday’s effort, though, was the kind that elicited an “epitome of brutality” tweet from college basketball expert Jon Rothstein. It’s also disheartening, knowing that the competition is about to get tougher in the coming weeks. “We went through this (against) Weber (State). We came out and we floated, took early shots and had turnovers, and then we ramped it up, and we were fortunate to win that one,” Jensen said. “But you know, the games are going to get tougher, and I think, where do we go? “. We’ve got a offense (that) will work itself out, but defensively, you’ve got to guard individually and collectively, and how do I as a teammate fit into this scheme to what we’re doing? And our mind can’t be anywhere else.”.
https://www.deseret.com/sports/2025/11/20/utah-cal-poly-basketball-analysis/
Sluggish Runnin’ Utes suffer first loss of season in 7-point setback to Cal Poly
