On New Year’s Eve, Stanford men’s basketball fell to Utah on The Farm by a final score of 71-66. Utah guard Lazar Stefanovic led the way for the Runnin’ Utes with 20 points while center Branden Carlson had 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 block. Stanford forward Spencer Jones was the top performer for the Cardinal with 16 points and 4 rebounds while guard Isa Silva had a season-high 11 points, one point shy of his career high from last year. Utah improves to 11-4 overall and 4-0 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 5-9 and 0-4 in the Pac-12.
“Well aware my expectations of the team and winning percentage is not what it needs to be right now,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “Obviously there was some positives in our guys coming back in the game, but I think our offensive struggles in the first half/beginning of the second half made it really challenging. I think that bled into our defense. Defensively, unable to get the stops that we need to be able to get if we want to be able to get over the hump. At this point, everybody within the program needs to look inside and find ways to make improvements necessary for us to get over the top.”
Utah got out to a strong start, leading 17-8 with 11:07 to go in the first half. Stanford decided to start Brandon Angel at center and it did not work as they were hoping. Branden Carlson was leading the Utes with 5 points and 1 rebound. Stanford was in a real funk, shooting 0-6 from 3-point range.
With 6:00 to go in the half, it was a 25-19 lead for Utah. Carlson was up to 9 points and 2 rebounds for the Utes while Harrison Ingram was up to 7 points and 3 rebounds for the Cardinal. After a quiet game against Colorado, Ingram was making his presence felt.
With 2:58 to go in the half, it was a 27-22 lead for Utah. Stanford was starting to come back a bit, but Utah was still in front. Stanford’s icy 2-11 shooting from 3-point range was really hurting them.
“I don’t know,” Haase said when asked about the slow offensive start. “I don’t know. I thought many many of the looks that we had were clean looks with good shooters. We did want to attack the paint. I thought we settled maybe a touch too much, but it’s hard to tell really good shooters not to shoot open shots. I’ll go back and look at the tape. Maybe I’m mistaken about the quality of the looks. But I do think a couple of those go in and confidence builds amongst the team, I think that could have helped. But, I think the offensive inefficiencies led to the struggles early.”
At halftime, it was a 30-23 lead for Utah. Carlson was leading the Utes with 11 points and 2 rebounds while Stefanovic was up to 8 points. Ingram’s 7 points and 5 rebounds was leading the Cardinal.
With 15:39 to go, Utah was now leading by 10 points (35-25). Stanford was 0-6 on their last 6 field goal attempts. Both teams were struggling to score. Stanford hadn’t scored in the last 3:54 while Utah had not scored in the last 2:04.
“Yeah, no doubt,” Haase said when asked if his team needs to get to the rim more. “Their defense is built to keep you away from, they don’t ever go outside the 3-point line. It’s easier to move the ball around the perimeter. They want to create it hard for you to get in the paint, but at the same time, we understand we’re much more efficient when we do that and we did probably settle at times.
“Many of those again were good looks, but the guys know and we’ve made a huge emphasis on trying to be able to throw the ball into the post, beat our man one-on-one, create scoring cuts where guys are open and be able to get the ball to the inside of the defense because I do believe as a coach, to play from the inside out is the most effective way to play.”
With 10:44 to go, Utah was now up by 16 points (49-33). Stanford was in real trouble. Carlson was killing Stanford inside with 15 points and 4 rebounds. Stanford could not buy a bucket, shooting 14-46 (30.4%) from the field.
“Branden is very talented,” Haase said of Carlson. “He’s a rim protector. The interior of their defense, you always have a shot blocker back there. Offensively he’s expanded his game, he’s an excellent three point shooter, he can put the ball on the ground a little bit, can score inside, he’s a good offensive rebounder, which is all to say he’s a big-time player and yeah, not a surprise that he did well, but I was disappointed we weren’t able to be a little bit more efficient defending him.”
Utah continued to stay in front over the next few minutes, leading 55-41 with 7:01 to go. Carlson was now up to 17 points and 4 rebounds after a bucket inside. Spencer Jones was up to 10 points after making back-to-back threes. He was the first Cardinal to reach double figures.
With 5:16 to go, it was a still a comfortable lead for the Utes as they were up 58-46. Stanford was starting to find a bit of a groove on offense, making five of their last six field goal attempts. The question was could they get the stops. Trading baskets wasn’t the answer.
With 3:34 to go, it was a 60-51 lead for Utah as Stanford had the ball. Max Murrell nailed a huge 3-pointer for Stanford. The Cardinal continued to stay on fire offensively, making seven of their last nine field goal attempts.
It would soon be a four point game as Utah led 62-58 with 2:29 to go. Stanford was making a fierce comeback attempt as Jones had a huge bucket inside. Stanford would then get to within two points (62-60) after a huge steal and bucket from Murrell before Gabe Madsen got fouled and went to the foul line for Utah. Madsen would make both free throws, making it a 64-60 game with 2:06 to go.
“You know most of the time when teams struggle you end up with bad attitudes, guys not playing hard not believing in the scouting report or the play or anything like that we don't have any of that,” Haase said. “The guys are always playing hard always doing their best. Can we play better? Of course. But in the second half when we did make a run the simple answer is we started making a few shots.
“Defensively I was actually, throughout the game, especially throughout the second half, we have to defend better and you know we started to gamble a little bit more which is part of the reason for the inefficiencies on the defensive end. Started pressing a little bit maybe give a couple there, but at the end of the day we did get to the paint a little bit more, made a few open threes and then the other last thing on the defensive end that we did struggle with, we started to put them on the line sometimes. If we could have kept that you know challenge shots or done things defensively to keep off the line and to give them credit, they started, shot it great from the free throw line, got there 23 times and made a bunch of them.”
Murrell would then commit a turnover that was stolen by Stefanovic, who got fouled and sent to the foul line. Stefanovic would make both foul shots, making it a 66-60 lead for Utah with 1:52 to go.
From there, Utah would hang on to win 71-66, though things did a get a bit wild at the very end:
Isa Silva got a layup inside to make it 69-66 after which Gabe Madsen went to the line and made two free throws to make it 71-66. Harrison Ingram then went to the foul line, missing three free throws. Ingram missed two free throws in a row, got the rebound off the second free throw and threw up a shot that went in as he was fouled.
However, it was a foul that was called on the floor and the shot was waived off. This set up a one and one foul shot for Ingram, which he also missed. Had Ingram’s shot counted, it would have been a 71-68 game. Would he have made the free throw to make it 71-69? Probably not as he missed the one and one, but maybe he would have focused a bit better and made it. Sports psychology is a funny thing.
That all said, having looked at the film post-game, the refs did get the call right. Ingram’s arm was locked with the Utah defender before he shot the ball, so giving him the basket would have been the wrong call. Still an unfortunate ending for the Cardinal.
Touching quickly on Utah, this is a very nice win for them. They completed a 2-0 Bay Area sweep and are now 4-0 in Pac-12 play. Craig Smith has his team playing well as they are doing a nice job of finding ways to win. They are definitely one of the feel good stories of the Pac-12 this season.
As for Stanford, this loss really stings. They were hoping to get a home sweep this week with the worst case being a split. They were favored in both games and ended up with no cigar in either one. They are not living up to their own expectations, which is really frustrating for them. At the same time, one has to give Stanford at least some credit for playing all the way until the very end. They didn’t throw in the towel and they have to realize that if they can just play a bit better, get a couple more shots to fall, they’ll win these close games. It’s just a matter of getting over that hump.
“Yeah, it’s exactly that, season’s not anywhere near being over,” Spencer Jones said. “We still have much work to do and we’ll have a couple string of practices to get better at that. So it’s just staying focused day by day.”
Up next for Stanford is a road game at Cal. That game will tip-off on Friday at 6:00 PM PT on ESPNU.
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