# #

Men's Basketball Falls to TCU in Midweek Match-Up

by Utah Athletics
Dec 8, 2021

FORT WORTH, Texas – The Utah men's basketball team had a tough shooting night against TCU, hitting just 33.9-percent of its shots in Wednesday's 76-62 loss at Dickies Arena.
 
Utah got off to a good start from the opening tip with Rollie Worster finding Branden Carlson for the jam. Later on the Missoula, Mont., product pulled down a defensive rebound and lasered an outlet pass to Both Gach for the fast break lay-up and 11-7 lead heading into the 15:43 media break.

 
Mike Miles single-handedly kept the Horned Frogs in the game, scoring 10 of the team's 12 points at 11:42 media timeout. TCU's Jamie Dixon got his team going out of that break and went on a quick 6-0 run to take an 18-15 lead over the Utes (6-3, 1-1 Pac-12) to force Utah timeout with 10:02 left in the half.
 
After Lahat Thioune tied the game up at 22-22 at the 7:08 mark, TCU reeled off a 10-0 run on 4-of-4 shooting coupled with three Utah turnovers saw the Utes call a timeout with 2:46 on the clock in hopes of cooling off the Horned Frogs. After Miles completed the three-point play out of the timeout, Lazar Stefanovic ended the Utah scoring drought that lasted 4:43 minutes after he knocked down all three free throws at the line and brought the Utes within 33-25 of TCU with 2:27 remaining in the frame before heading into the locker room down 36-27.

 
The Utes looked like they had found their offense in the second half and cut the TCU (7-1) lead down to 38-32 after Carlson hit both of his free throws. However, 3-of-10 shooting to start the second frame compared to the Horned Frog's 8-of-13 saw Utah trail 54-42 with 12 minutes left to play.
 
Utah continued to fight late in the second half and brought the TCU lead back down to 58-50 after a 3-pointer from David Jenkins Jr., dunk from Carlson and free throw from Gach but a lay-up from Emmanuel Miller saw Utah's deficit back to double digits (60-50) with 7:13 to go.  
 
Gach brought Utah within 66-58 of TCU after getting a steal and drew the foul on his drive to the rack with 3:48 to go. However, the Utes only managed to notch one field goal from that point on as TCU pulled away 76-62.

 
Gach and Carlson each scored a team-high 16 points for 32 points while the rest of the team combined for 30 points. Carlson nearly had a double-double, pulling down nine rebounds with six blocks to go with a perfect 6-for-6 night at the line. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS
Marco Anthony made his first appearance since rolling his ankle in the first half at the 16:56 mark as the first Ute sub off the bench … the loss snaps a seven-game winning-streak against TCU … for the fourth-straight game, Utah committed less than 10 turnovers with eight … Utah once again lost the battle of the boards in the loss with TCU taking the edge 43-33 that led to a 44-28 advantage in points in the paint … Utah was just 3-of-20 (.150) from the 3-point line Wednesday night, its lowest 3-point field goal percentage this season.
 
UP NEXT
The Utes now return home to friendly confines of the Jon M. Huntsman Center for a 3 p.m. (MT) battle with Manhattan this Saturday, Dec. 11. Krista Blunk will have the call between the Runnin' Utes and Jaspers while former Utah assistant Joe Cravens serves as the analyst in the Pac-12 Network broadcast.
 
For the latest news and information on the Runnin' Utes men's basketball program, fans can stay connected online at www.UtahUtes.com and on social media by following @UtahMBB on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
 
###

Related News & Videos