Utah basketball: Utes' bigs contribute very little in loss to Oregon State

Corvallis, Ore • In Wednesday night's 82-64 loss to Oregon State, Utah's Jason Washburn played his worst game of the Pac-12 schedule, scoring two points, grabbing six rebounds and turning the ball over twice.

Before 4,118 at Gill Coliseum, Washburn may have been absolved for those numbers had the Utes been able to pull out a win.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the worst thing to happen to Utah on this night. Oregon State's Joe Burton dominated the Utes' frontcourt with 17 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Eric Moreland came off the bench and grabbed 15 rebounds while scoring nine points.

Those performances cast a spotlight on Washburn's inactivity. And an inside game that's served as Utah's strength for the bulk of the season inexplicably went silent against the Beavers.

"To win a basketball game, you have to be able to have a complement," Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak said. "We didn't have that tonight, and it hurt us."

How bad was it for the Utah interior? The Utes' big men — Washburn, Jordan Loveridge and Renan Lenz — shot a combined 4 for 20 from the field.

The tone was set early, as Lenz missed four point-blank layups in the first five minutes. He went 0 for 5 in that span and played just two minutes for the rest of the game.

Loveridge snared a game-high eight rebounds, but he shot 3 for 11 and struggled to finish at the rim in 30 minutes of action.

Like a lot of Utah's inconsistencies, the lack of production was a mystery. Especially since the Utes dominated Colorado in the paint last Saturday.

"It's on us to figure some of this stuff out," Washburn said. "The coaches are giving us good schemes. We just have to go out and execute if we want to be successful. We didn't play well tonight. It has to get better for us to get better."