On a night that the Runnin’ Utes honored Ute great and basketball barrier breaker Wat Misaka, they faced a different challenge with the no. 16 USC Trojans.

Improvement has been evident recently in Utah head coach Craig Smith’s young squad, but the losses continue to follow. On Saturday, the length and athleticism of USC was just too much as they defeated the Utes 79-67.

Here are the takeaways from the game:

Underclassmen continue to emerge

One game after a career high, freshman wing Lazar Stefanovic struggled with his shot, but still chipped in 10 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two blocks. Most importantly for him, he only had one turnover in over 31 minutes of action.

With Stefanivic’s shot struggling to go down, it was freshman guard Gabe Madsen who stepped up playing 23 minutes and going 5-11 from long-distance. Madsen hit a wide assortment of buckets, from getting clean looks to drilling off-balanced shots in the corners.

After recovering from the fluke injury early in the season, Madsen continues to get more and more comfortable. If he and Stefanovic continue to make strides, their minutes will increase over the upperclassmen. At this point on an eight game losing streak, it’s about building the future of the program.

Utes win the battle of the benches

At this point in the season, you look for small wins, similar to what was mentioned above with the freshmen that continue to emerge and improve. Against the Trojans, Utah didn’t just win the battle of the benches, they won it convincingly. Led by Madsen’s 20 points, they out scored USC 34-12.

Walkon Eli Ballstaeadt, who has become a favorite of Smith, played 15 minutes and scored six points, drilling 2-3 three-pointers. All other players who got off the bench and played at least ten minutes scored, the lone guy to not was David Jenkins as he continued his up and down Pac-12 play.

With Jenkins, that’s a conversation for another day, but it’s growing obvious that there’s more than meets the surface on why he’s not playing, as the team could use his shooting, whether it’s streaky or not.

USC’s size eventually won out

The Utes made a game of it despite missing typical starting center Branden Carlson. Even if he played, it's likely close to the same outcome. Utah was outrebounded 42-31, USC had 40 points in the paint to Utah’s 20, and held a 15 to six differential on second chance points.

For the most part, Utah’s Dusan Mahorcic Lahat Thioune, and Riley Battin kept the USC bigs under their typical production. However, Thioune and Battin combined to only score five points and pull in four rebounds in just under 27 minutes of action.

In the post game press conference, Craig Smith said it’s a possibility that Carlson might not be back until the Colorado game. Whenever he’s back that’ll be welcome news for a team that relies on his versatility.

Up next

The Runnin’ Utes travel to Washington as they take on the Washington State Cougars on Wednesday at 8 PM. They’ll travel to Seattle to take in the Huskies on Saturday at 3 PM. The Utes previously lost to both teams in Salt Lake City.