Arizona has dominated its series against Utah throughout recent history, but two of the Utes' wins in the series have come in Salt Lake City. That includes the last time the two teams met at the Huntsman Center back in 2019. Maybe that should have been a clue that Arizona would not have a good night.

The Wildcats struggled in several areas over the course of the 40 minutes against the Utes with UA looking a bit out of sorts during several stretches. The result was Arizona's lowest scoring output of the season in a 73-58 loss to open its trip to the Mountain schools.

Sean Miller's team controlled the game through the first 10 minutes but a difficult stretch to end the opening half allowed Utah to regain a lead that it would never surrender over the final 22 minutes of the contest.

The Utes were consistent, especially on defense, while the Wildcats had one of their worst defensive performances of the season and went through long shooting droughts.

"I felt fortunate that we weren't down by more in the first half," Miller said. "That fifth segment of the first half, so the last four minutes of the first half, was a disaster. We had a loose ball that we didn't dive on. Ira (Lee) went for the blocked shot and I don't know if he really even needed to. And, I think they beat us 9-1 going into halftime.

"Then, coming out of halftime, they really did the same thing to us. From that point we were just playing uphill. I credit Utah, and if our team isn't a hard-playing, together group we don't have any room for error."

The Wildcats have been one of the most successful offensive teams in the Pac-12 this season so the struggles against the Utes come as a bit of a surprise. Miller felt the issues his team had on that end of the floor starting to impact the Wildcats on the other end creating more problems.

"A big problem with our offense was Utah played very, very hard and physical on defense," he said. "You can let your offense affect your defense. The ball is not going in, having turnovers. Next thing you know you're picking and choosing your effort level and your consistency on the defensive end, and it's just a matter of time before they break it open."

The Arizona head coach added that his team "took a giant step backwards" with its defensive performance tonight after he had been recently encouraged by the slow progress of his team on that end of the floor.

Freshman power forward Azuolas Tubelis finished the game as the leading scorer with 17 points to go with seven rebounds that included hitting seven of his eight shots from the free-throw line. UA's front court players had some success offensively, but early foul trouble prevented the entire group from contributing in a greater way.

"They just kicked our asses," the freshman said after the loss. "What can I say? We need to play defense. There's not any excuses. We need to get better and get ready for the next game."

The loss spoiled the debut of freshman guard Kerr Kriisa who was forced to sit out most of the season because of an NCAA eligibility. He was able to dish out two early assists but was mostly kept quiet on the offensive end in 19 minutes of action. Though he didn't score Kriisa brought energy on the defensive end of the floor on a rough night for the Wildcats.

"He's gonna give us everything," Miller said of his freshman guard's debut. "It was nice to have him out there. He deserved to be out there, and you could kind of see his spark a little bit. I'm glad we had him tonight. I'm not so sure if we didn't have him, with the predicament we were in, if the score wouldn't have been more lopsided.

"I thought he helped us and he did some good things. He'll continue to get more comfortable as the schedule moves forward."

UA will now visit Colorado to face the Buffaloes on Saturday night with the Wildcats looking for a season sweep when the two teams meet up at 6 p.m. MST.

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