3 keys to Utah’s 88-76 loss to Oregon State

Oregon State’s Warith Alatishe (10) shoots over Utah’s Branden Carlson (35) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Corvallis, Ore., Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021.

Amanda Loman, Associated Press

Playing nothing like a team with only two wins and more like the team that made a run to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight last spring, Oregon State rolled past the Runnin’ Utes 88-76 Thursday night in front of a sparse crowd at Gill Coliseum in rainy Corvallis, Oregon.

Utah dropped to 1-2 in Pac-12 play, 8-5 overall, with the loss.

Here are three keys to the game:

• Too many turnovers (20) and too much Jarod Lucas (25 points) and Warith Alatishe (16 points) led to the Utes dropping their second-straight conference road game. Utah won the rebounding battle and shot a reasonable 45% from the field, but didn’t take care of the ball well and OSU picked up its first conference win while improving to 3-10 overall.

• David Jenkins Jr. led the Utes with 22 points, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range, but the Utes went cold from beyond the arc after making 10 of their first 16 from 3-point range. Marco Anthony was the only other Ute in double figures, adding 10.

• Oregon State shot the lights out in the first half, going 20 of 32 from the field and 4 of 6 from deep. The hot shooting carried the Beavers to a 47-38 halftime lead, their highest-scoring half of the season by six points. The Utes shot 50% in the first half and won the rebounding battle by six, but 10 first-half turnovers were costly.