Utah guard Terrence Brown (2) talks with head coach Alex Jensen during an NCAA men’s basketball game against the Cal Poly Mustangs held at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret NewsBrandon JuddWed, December 3, 2025 at 6:34 AM UTC·8 min readUtah’s venture back into old Pac-12 territory resulted in a loss Tuesday night, as the Runnin’ Utes fell to California 79-72 at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, California.
While Utah built an early lead and trimmed its deficit to a single possession on multiple occasions in the second half, a difficult offensive stretch to end the game sealed the loss for the Utes.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Give Mark (Madsen) and Cal credit, they did a good job in the preparation and their adjustments,” Utah coach Alex Jensen said in his postgame interview on ESPN 700 AM. “Just maturity just looking for the growth there with our team. We did a pretty good job of it, (though) two little things stuck out.
“We were down by two and had stops and went for shot fakes and fouled them, something that we practice multiple times. It’s just the maturity level of being together, just learning, not getting fatigued, staying mentally locked in.”
How the game transpired
Early on, it was the Terrence Brown vs Dai Dai Ames show, as both had 7 points at the first media timeout.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUtah used a 12-0 run to go up 19-12, then led by a game-high eight when Brown got a steal and slam to make it 25-17. At that point, the Utes held a 9-0 edge in fastbreak points.
The Golden Bears, though, had a run of their own, going up 33-30 on a 13-2 run that was capped by a 3-pointer from Justin Pippen that bounced high off the back of the rim, then in.
Utah eventually went into the final minute-plus of the half down by one, but Cal used a 7-0 run to end the half with a 42-34 advantage.
Both teams battled back and forth for several minutes in the second half.
At one point, Utah had a chance to trim a Cal three-point lead to one from the free-throw line, but Brown couldn’t convert either free throw and the Golden Bears then built a game-high 66-57 lead with 8:34 to play.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Utes didn’t go away and had the game down to two points at 72-70 on a Seydou Traore jumper with 3:21 to play, but from there, the Utes struggled offensively and Cal, which didn’t hit a field goal over the final 3:43, wrapped up the game at the free-throw line.
The Golden Bears were 22 of 24 from the free-throw line, the primary difference on a night where the statistics were similar in many places across the stat sheet.
A confident start was wiped out
The Utes, six days after beating Ole Miss in a 75-74 thriller, started the game strong against Cal.
Utah went up 25-17 on Brown’s fast-break dunk and had a 9-0 advantage in fastbreak points with 8:50 until halftime. At that point, Utah was shooting 50% from the field, at 9 of 18.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOver the remainder of the half, though, Utah made just 2 of 10 field goals — both 3-pointers — and was outscored 25-9.
That included a Cal 7-0 run over the final 1:04 of the first half, when Utah had two turnovers and a couple defensive lapses led to points in the paint for the Bears to push their lead out.
“It’s not malicious. I just think it’s go back to the maturity part of it. I think our guys (are) just not thinking about scoring, (they’re) letting it happen instead of hunting for it,” Jensen said.
“... Instead of realizing how we got the eight-point lead and sticking to that and being, keeping better at that, I think shortcuts come into it, defensively and offensively.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUtah never led again after allowing the Golden Bears to seize control, even though the Utes showed improvements on the defensive end that allowed them to stick around.
Cal ended up shooting 45.5% from the field and made 7 of 18 3-pointers (38.9%).
The Bears were led by 25 points from Ames, who scored all six of California’s final six points from the free-throw line and made 9 of 14 from the field.
He also played in foul trouble much of the second half — he picked up his third with under 12 minutes to play and fourth at the 6:29 mark, but Ames never fouled out.
Justin Pippen, son of Scottie Pippen, scored a career-high 23 points, with 15 of those coming after halftime. He shot 8 of 15 from the field, tied for the team lead with three 3-pointers and three rebounds, two assists, one block and a steal.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe finishing touch wasn’t there for Utah
Jensen said his group suffers from being “habitual over-dribblers” at times, and that bogs down the offense in stretches.
With the razor-thin margin for error the Utes have at this point in their development, that leads to situations like what they faced Tuesday, where they simply couldn’t get enough going offensively to rally once they fell behind.
“We’re habitual over-dribblers. Part of that is, you know, I can do a better job of helping us move the ball,” Jensen said. “But it’s just habits, I think where guys have come about at other places, like they just dribble, dribble, dribble.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“That was one thing I just told them after the game, you’ve got to pass it. Learn how to play without the ball. There’s a lot of things I can do to help them, but at the end of the day, it’s just pass in space.”
The most obvious stretch of Utah’s stagnation on offense came late in the game, when Utah had a chance in a one-possession game.
After Traore pulled the Utes within 72-70, Jacob Patrick fell for a pump fake and fouled Chris Bell, one of those pump-fakes that Jensen bemoaned after the contest.
Bell made 1 of 2 free throws to make it 73-70, where the score would stay for the next two minutes of game time.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt started a stretch where Utah failed to score on five straight possessions, which included:
A turnover from Brown,
Keanu Dawes missing the front-end of a 1-and-1 after being fouled going for a rebound on the defensive end,
Missed 3-pointers from Don McHenry and Kendyl Sanders that would have tied the game,
A missed driving layup from Brown.
California finally added to its lead with two free throws from Ames with 50 seconds left, and then Utah’s next possession exemplified the offensive issues the Utes suffered from on the night.
Utah ran the clock down on the ensuing possession down five, and McHenry, after trying to pump-fake his defender, had a 3-point shot blocked by Pippen.
While Utah rebounded the block, the Utes couldn’t get another shot up, and a costly shot clock violation ended up being Utah’s 10th turnover of the game and essentially the clincher.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThis was the most balanced the Utes have been offensively this season — Brown had a team-high 15 points, though he shot 5 of 13 and had three turnovers.
Traore and Dawes each scored 14, and Dawes just missed out on a double-double with nine rebounds. He also had five assists and four turnovers.
Patrick, despite that late foul, had a positive night with a season-high 13 points and three made 3-pointers, while McHenry added 10 points on 4 of 12 shooting.
The Utes shot just 42.4% from the field, though, and were 14 of 19 from the free-throw line. Their three second-half free-throw misses all came at times when they could have trimmed their deficit to one point or tied the game.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhat’s up next?
The Utes (6-3) return to Salt Lake City after spending the past week-plus on the road.
Utah went 1-2 away from the Huntsman Center, including a loss against Grand Canyon and a win over Ole Miss at the Acrisure Series last week in Palm Desert, California.
Now, the Utes return home to face the WAC’s Cal Baptist (7-1) on Saturday at the Huntsman Center (5 p.m. MST, ESPN+).
The Lancers are 7-1 on the year, with their lone loss against Colorado on Monday. Cal Baptist, who is favored to win the WAC this season, will play at No. 9 BYU on Wednesday.
After a two-game losing streak — at home against Cal Poly and the Grand Canyon defeat — the Utes have looked more cohesive when the competition level has increased.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat’s an encouraging sign with just a month until Big 12 Conference play begins, though there’s still plenty to work on moving forward.
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