Utah was a 19.5-point favorite on Monday night against a Long Beach State team. EvanMiya ranks No. 277 in Division I. The Utes are No. 77. For about 25 minutes, you would not have thought the rankings were flipped.
Long Beach led 40-28 at halftime and by as many as 17 in the second half. Utah outscored State 38-23 after the break and escaped the Huntsman Center with a 66-63 win. It was uncomfortable, and nobody in the building pretended otherwise.
A first half to forget
Ten of Utah’s 15 turnovers came in the first half, and Long Beach turned the game’s turnovers into 20 points. Utah scored 14 off Long Beach’s 10. McCaden Adams hit four threes on the way to 21 points, and Long Beach shot 40% from deep as a team.
Alex Jensen did not dress it up afterward. “You give up that many points off turnovers; it’s really hard,” he said. He also gave Long Beach credit for the way it started. “They were ready to go from the beginning and had a good game plan. We were fortunate enough to pull it off at the end.”
His bigger concern was how the Utes played together. “Too many of our guys in different ways are on their own island, in their own world,” Jensen said. He pointed to communication as one example, saying a player can’t be “trying to get a steal and not talking to other teammates.”
The second half looked like a different team
Jensen said he was fairly calm at halftime. The message was simple. “We started the second half how we should have started the game.”
Jackson Holcombe said the message in the locker room was a bit more direct. “He just told us to wake up. It looked like we were slow out there, looked like we didn’t want to be out there.”
Trey Campbell said the team leaned on its preparation. “We thought back to all the time we put in, everything we’ve been through, and we knew that coming out like that was not what we wanted to do,” he said. “So obviously trust in our work to help us in the second half.”
The numbers back up the turnaround. Utah shot 51% for the game, outrebounded Long Beach 40-27 and held them to 23 points in the second half. Malek Gomma grabbed 11 boards despite foul trouble. The Utes also shot just 9-of-19 at the line, which kept the finish tighter than it needed to be.
Campbell and Holcombe carried the load
Campbell finished with 20 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals on 7-of-11 shooting, playing 37 minutes. Jensen understood how important that performance was. “We don’t win the game without Trey tonight,” he said. He added that Campbell was Utah’s best defender against the two Long Beach scorers who got hot and that he didn’t like how much the team leaned on him.
Holcombe added 14 points and 8 rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting, including a key bucket with about a minute left. Jensen praised his competitiveness while saying he still has to evolve, especially on the little plays that don’t show up in a box score, like being in the right spot on the weak side and talking.
TJ Burch deserves a mention too. He went 1-for-6 and scored two points, but the players said he was a team-best plus-14 in 27 minutes off the bench. “Most people see he was 1-for-6, but TJ helped us win that game,” Holcombe said.
Where it leaves Utah
Jensen was honest about where the night landed. “I think we took two steps back and maybe one step forward tonight,” he said. The players said much the same. “An ugly win beats a pretty loss, but we’ve got a lot we’ve got to get better at,” Holcombe said.
The good news is the second half proved what this team can be. The bad news is the first half proved how fast it can disappear. Utah can’t afford stretches like that against Big 12 competition. Babacar Faye also made his Utah debut, playing four minutes, and Jensen said it was great to see him back on the floor.
Utah returns to the Huntsman Center Thursday against Towson.