SALT LAKE CITY — Once his team’s sixth straight loss appeared smack in front of Sean Miller, with Utah plowing through his defense for an 18-2 run Thursday, the Arizona coach punted.
At least it seemed like he did.
With 7:02 left in Arizona’s 83-76 loss at Utah, with the once-competitive Wildcats suddenly trailing by 15, Miller inserted walk-on Matt Weyand and former walk-on Jake DesJardins.
Then he had those guys help the Wildcats put out a 2-3 zone defense.
That’s when you knew something was up.
“We just tried to just give them a different look to maybe stay in the game,” Miller said. “I think we were on the verge of maybe getting blown out but to our players’ credit the last four minutes we fought, and made some plays and we’re able to finish in a good way.”
That’s the good news for the Wildcats, if any is possible out of a sixth straight loss that dropped Arizona to 14-11 overall and 5-7 in the Pac-12.
That, and the fact that Brandon Williams went through all of the Wildcats’ pre-game warmups for the first time since aggravating his previously injured right knee in Los Angeles last month, when all of UA’s struggles became worse.
Miller said Williams was further along than he was two weeks ago and, while he still said he couldn’t say when Williams might be able to return, said his appearance in the layup line was a good sign. Arizona will play at Colorado on Sunday.
“Brandon’s one of our best players,” Miller said. “We’d love to have him for sure.”
Utah center Brandon Morley fights for the ball with Arizona forward Ira Lee during the first half. The Wildcats are now in 10th place in the Pac-12 with a 5-7 conference record.
But in this one, Williams was unavailable — as was center Chase Jeter for all but 22 minutes in the game. Jeter, whose absence with back trouble at least somewhat led to the Wildcats’ blowout losses at USC and UCLA last month, spent much of the game mired in foul trouble. He fouled out with 4:08 left to go.
That left a core of seven players, plus DesJardins and Weyand, to fend off the surging Utes, who were coming off a confidence-boosting comeback win at UCLA last Saturday. In that game, the Utes came back from 22 behind, and won it on a 25-foot buzzer-beater from Parker Van Dyke.
The Utah marksman then picked up Thursday exactly where he left off, making five of six 3-pointers in the first half to keep otherwise struggling Utah alive while UA took a 32-31 halftime lead.
For the game, Van Dyke hit seven of 10 3s, just two shy of the UA opponent record for made 3-pointers set by BYU’s Jimmer Fredette during the 2009-10 season, Miller’s first at Arizona.
Oddly, Van Dyke hasn’t even been starting lately, finding his rhythm off the bench, and saying he can live with that as a senior this season.
“It’s my last go-round and playing I’m confident and letting it fly,” Van Dyke said. “It’s kind of all coming together for me right now.”
It’s a good thing for the Wildcats that Van Dyke didn’t have that kind of mojo a month ago. He missed a potentially game-winning 3-pointer at McKale Center with eight seconds left in overtime.
This time, he rarely missed, whether defended, stepping back or just getting an open look. Asked if the Wildcats could have defended Van Dyke better, Miller shrugged.
“You always feel that way,” Miller said. “If you’re an excellent defensive team, what you’re able to do is quiet a guy like him, where he can get going for a period of time but then all of a sudden he kind of goes away.
“Right now, with who we are defensively, players who hurt other teams generally hurt our team and tonight was another example of that.”
Parker Van Dyke, right, goes by Arizona's Dylan Smith during the second half of Utah's game in Salt Lake City on Thursday. Van Dyke hit connected of 7 of his first 8 3-pointers.
While Van Dyke wound up making half of Utah’s 10 first-half field goals, it was center Jayce Johnson who dominated in the second half while Jeter played just nine minutes. Johnson scored all of his 17 points after halftime, while also collecting five rebounds in each half.
Johnson played a big part in keeping Arizona down during the final minutes. The Wildcats led Utah 49-48 with 12 minutes left before the Utes went on their 18-2 run, which ended on a 3-pointer from Sedrick Barefield.
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The Wildcats late push, however, cut the Utes’ lead all the way down to just five points, on a fast-break layup from Ryan Luther with 12 seconds left but Utah’s Both Gach hit four free throws over the final 12 seconds to keep the Wildcats from getting any closer.
“We continued to play hard,” UA guard Alex Barcello said. “We bounced back but there wasn’t enough time left. We’re going to continue to play hard. We’re gonna take this into Sunday, and hopefully we’ll get a win.”
That doesn’t figure to be easy against a Colorado team that just beat ASU after a road sweep in Los Angeles.
Then again, nothing is easy these days for the Wildcats.
“We don’t want to lose our seventh in a row,” Miller said, “but it is a possibility.”
