ASU Basketball: Utes beat down Sun Devils, 86-63

The Arizona State men's basketball team suffered its second consecutive conference road loss, falling to the Utah Utes 86-63 on Sunday night.

The only Sun Devil starter that was able to make a dent in Utah's defense was forward Shaquille
McKissic, who finished with 16 points, five rebounds and two assists. Collectively, the Sun Devils (19-8, 8-6 Pac-12) shot 30.8 percent from the field and went 6-27 from deep.

The Utes (18-9, 7-8 Pac-12), on the other hand, shot 54 percent and were led by a strong performance from guard Delon Wright. Wright led all scorers with 22 points and also recorded nine rebounds and six assists.

The Sun Devils came out flat from the get-go and could not get into a rhythm offensively. The Utes jumped out to a 34-11 lead before head coach Herb Sendek called a timeout with 7:46 left to play in the first half. By that point the Sun Devils had already missed 15 shots, and had dug themselves into a hole.

Arizona State began to gradually shoot the ball better but it still limped into half time trailing 56-21.

In the second half, the Sun Devils actually ended up outscoring the Utes 37-35. However, the lead was never in question for the Utes, as the double-digit advantage was too much to overcome for the Sun Devils, especially on a bad shooting night.

The Sun Devils will look to end their two-game skid as they host Stanford on Feb. 26.

Notes:

• Point guard Jahii Carson finished with eight points, center Jordan Bachynski had five and shooting guard Jermaine Marshall scored seven.
• Egor Koulechov and Bo Barnes both came off the bench and scored 11 points each.
• Utes forward Jordan Loveridge had a big game with 18 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
• Jordan Bachynski still managed to outscore his brother Dallin Bachynski (Utah). Dallin finished with two points and was 0-3 from the field.