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At the 12:57 mark, JoJo Zamora subbed out. His night, as far as he knew, was over.
For the next 11 minutes of game time, he started to settle in. But Oregon State's night was just getting started.
With Utah's bench emptied out onto the floor with more than a quarter of the game remaining, the last-place team in the Pac-12 began the steady work of narrowing a 28-point lead to seven points. And finally, with 2:03 to go, Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak subbed his starters back in after a timeout.
By then, Zamora's legs had gotten stiff from his long respite on the bench. But still, Utah (15-6, 6-3) had just enough to pull out a victory, 86-78.
It was just much closer than it needed to be.
"Basically as soon as coach called that timeout, and he looked kind of frustrated," Zamora said, "that's when I knew it was time to come back in."
Maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise that Oregon State (4-18, 0-9) clawed its way back in: The Utes, by their own observation, weren't playing with enough energy. They had a first-half stretch going without a basket for five minutes, and also had trouble staying in front of the Beavers starting guards.
Still, victory appeared assured midway through the second half, after Utah had gone on 12-4 burst led by Kyle Kuzma (18 points) and David Collette (13 points) dominating an undermanned Beavers front court. Utah's lead was well into the mid-20s shortly after halftime.
Krystkowiak said his mind was on preventing injuries when he subbed out his starting lineup with almost 13 minutes left. He wasn't, he said, trying to take it easy on former teammate and colleague Wayne Tinkle, who coaches one of only two major conference teams without a league win.
"Heck, if anything, I probably wanted to beat Wayne more than I wanted to beat most people," he said. "That wasn't a part of what went into my thinking at all. Trust me."
But throwing in the bench gave Oregon State just the opportunity it needed. With a game-high 30 points, Thompson led the charge back from oblivion. Between the 8:24 mark and 43 seconds left, the Beavers were 10 for 13 from the field — trimming Utah's seemingly huge margin by 21 points in the process.
Utah was able to close in on its sixth league win when Thompson missed the final two shots Oregon State took. Kuzma and Lorenzo Bonam managed to defy Utah's flagging free-throw shooting percentage to give the Utes some late breathing room.
Kuzma's defensive rebound with 15 seconds left marked the end of the threat, but the final score was still close enough for Krystkowiak to offer a mea culpa. He thought the game was under control and wanted to reward some of his reserves for a good week of practice, but the result was "a perfect storm," he said.
"If I had to do it over again, I probably would've waited until we got inside that last media timeout," he said. "I wasn't trying to disrespect anybody or anything. Apologize if anybody was offended because the game got too close. But I've notched up a little bit of a lesson in my mind."
Utah was dominant inside when the starters were playing, racking up 40 points in the paint and outrebounding the Beavers. Besides Collette and Kuzma going a combined 13 for 17 from the field, Utah's double-teams on defense put a lid on sophomore big Drew Eubanks, who had eight points only two nights after notching 27 points against Colorado.
But the guards were a different story: Thompson hit a career-high scoring mark, and freshman Jaquori McLaughlin added 22 points. Krystkowiak said his defenders weren't playing close enough on Oregon State's backcourt, and it cost the Utes.
Utah also continued a streak of dicey free throw shooting: The Utes hit only 54 percent from the line, adding drama to the final sequences.
"I don't really know what's going on in games," Collette said. "It seems pretty solid in practices. Maybe we gotta focus a little more on that."
Despite the miscues — both coaching and otherwise — Utah did improve to a third-place tie with UCLA in the Pac-12 standings, inching closer to its goal of finishing in the top 4 of the league at the halfway point in conference play.
But as they learned on Saturday evening, they can't be satisfied with how they've begun.
"We're going to have to be ready to go mentally to catch up on a team we haven't played yet," Krystkowiak said. "Just try to finish up as strong as we can."
Twitter: @kylegoon