Utah’s first taste of the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament ended up being sour.

The No. 11 seed Runnin’ Utes couldn’t hold on to an early double-digit lead as hot-shooting No. 14 seed UCF beat Utah 87-72 in the nightcap of Tuesday’s first round action.

3 takeaways

3-point shooting flipped the game for the Knights. Neither team was able to get much going from 3-point range early in the contest, as Utah missed its first 10 from long range and UCF started 1 of 8.

The Utes built a 21-9 lead but the Knights started to cut into that deficit with some hot 3-point shooting, as UCF ended the first half making 6 of 10, including one just before the halftime buzzer to make it 40-39 going into the break.

The Knights ended up making 10 of 24 3-pointers, while the Utes were 4 of 26.

Keyshawn Hall scored a team-high 23 points for UCF, while Darius Johnson added 20 and Jordan Ivy-Curry had 15 while making three 3-pointers.

The Knights put the game away early in the second half.

The second half couldn’t have started much worse for Utah. After both teams hit field goals in the first 1:10, the Knights went on a 24-3 run to build a 20-point lead.

UCF started the second half shooting 10 of 12 from the floor, while the Utes missed 10 straight field goals at one point.

By the time Keanu Dawes made 1 of 2 free throws, the Utes had gone more than four minutes without a score.

Scoring droughts have become a bane for Utah in the back half of conference play, including in its loss last Saturday at BYU when the Utes only trailed by four at halftime but trailed by as many as 19 in the second half.

This time, the Knights’ early second-half dominance built a big enough cushion for them to cruise to the win, even after a 15-4 run for the Utes briefly made it a single-digit deficit.

Keanu Dawes led Utah’s paint attack. Dawes was a bright spot on a difficult night for Utah, as he made his first start this season with Ezra Ausar missing the game due to injury.

Dawes had 10 first-half rebounds and ended the night with a career-high 21 boards while adding a career-high 15 points.

The taller Utes took advantage of their size inside in the first half, going into the break with a 28-6 edge in points in the paint. UCF ended up cutting that to a 42-26 advantage by game’s end.

Utah won the rebounding edge at 40-35, including 18-8 on the offensive glass.