Misses Trouble the Utes -- From Inside the Arc
Coach Jim Boylen said he was satisfied with the shots the Utes took in their 61-59 loss to Gonzaga tonight, even though a season-high 27 of them were three-pointers.
The problem was, not enough of them fell.
And it wasn't the three-pointers that weren't falling. The Utes hit a season-high 12 of those, giving them a shooting percentage of 44.4 -- a rate that's actually higher than their solid season average, and one that would rank in the top 10 nationally if it was their season average. You probably can't fairly expect to hit many more than that in a game, no matter how open they are.
The real issue was inside the line.
The Utes made only 10 of 27 shots inside the arc, including just one of their first 11 shots. Had they shot their usual 50 percent or so, they might have changed the entire complexion of the game by enjoying a much larger lead throughout most of the first half.
Then, to start the second half, the Utes missed their only two shots and committed three turnovers in the first four minutes, while the Bulldogs ran off 10 unanswered points that forced the Utes to play catch-up the rest of the game.
"That run at the beginning of the second half hurt us a little bit," point guard Tyler Kepkay said.
For a player whose team scored all of 59 points, Kepkay was pretty bold after the game, saying the Bulldogs "definitely weren't the best defensive team we've played the whole year. A lot of times, we got what we wanted, -- we were running our offense, we got the shots we wanted. We hit a lot of them, and then we missed a couple that, if we had hit them, it would have helped us."
The two biggest examples came in the final three minutes.
Center Luke Nevill missed two free throws -- the Utes were 3-for-6 from the line, compared to 10-of-13 for the Bulldogs -- with 2:50 remaining, and forward Shaun Green rebounded the miss, only to miss a lay-up in a seven-point game.
Then, trailing by four with less than a minute to play, Green missed a three-pointer that would have changed everything about the way the teams played the final 45 seconds.
"We just didn't make enough plays down the stretch," said Green, who scored 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting, all but one a three-pointer. "We had a couple of careless turnovers, we missed a few shots. We just came up short. ... We had a lot of open looks all night. We were really happy with them, we just needed to make a few more of them."
The problem was, not enough of them fell.
And it wasn't the three-pointers that weren't falling. The Utes hit a season-high 12 of those, giving them a shooting percentage of 44.4 -- a rate that's actually higher than their solid season average, and one that would rank in the top 10 nationally if it was their season average. You probably can't fairly expect to hit many more than that in a game, no matter how open they are.
The real issue was inside the line.
The Utes made only 10 of 27 shots inside the arc, including just one of their first 11 shots. Had they shot their usual 50 percent or so, they might have changed the entire complexion of the game by enjoying a much larger lead throughout most of the first half.
Then, to start the second half, the Utes missed their only two shots and committed three turnovers in the first four minutes, while the Bulldogs ran off 10 unanswered points that forced the Utes to play catch-up the rest of the game.
"That run at the beginning of the second half hurt us a little bit," point guard Tyler Kepkay said.
For a player whose team scored all of 59 points, Kepkay was pretty bold after the game, saying the Bulldogs "definitely weren't the best defensive team we've played the whole year. A lot of times, we got what we wanted, -- we were running our offense, we got the shots we wanted. We hit a lot of them, and then we missed a couple that, if we had hit them, it would have helped us."
The two biggest examples came in the final three minutes.
Center Luke Nevill missed two free throws -- the Utes were 3-for-6 from the line, compared to 10-of-13 for the Bulldogs -- with 2:50 remaining, and forward Shaun Green rebounded the miss, only to miss a lay-up in a seven-point game.
Then, trailing by four with less than a minute to play, Green missed a three-pointer that would have changed everything about the way the teams played the final 45 seconds.
"We just didn't make enough plays down the stretch," said Green, who scored 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting, all but one a three-pointer. "We had a couple of careless turnovers, we missed a few shots. We just came up short. ... We had a lot of open looks all night. We were really happy with them, we just needed to make a few more of them."
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 9:49 PM |
1 Comments:
We got three happy again and with no inside presence, no one attacking the rim to get to the free throw line we lost a game that should have been blown wide open in the first half. Common sense would tell you go to the hole, get fouled, get to the line, stop the clock.
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