Utah vs. Fresno State: Score and Twitter Reaction from March Madness 2016

Once the Utah Runnin' Utes lost their lead Thursday, they made sure it didn't happen again.

Thanks to Jakob Poeltl's 16 points and 18 rebounds, the Utes withstood a second-half rally by the Fresno State Bulldogs to secure an 80-69 win in the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in Denver.

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The Utes continued their success as a No. 3 seed, per Utah Athletics:

Four Utah starters scored in double figures, including Lorenzo Bonam (17 points) and Jordan Loveridge (16). The Utes will face the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the second round on Saturday.

Fresno State guard and Mountain West tournament MVP Marvelle Harris led the Bulldogs with 24 points. Forward Karachi Edo had 14.

The Bulldogs went into Thursday's matchup as winners of 10 of their 11 games, securing the Mountain West tournament title in the process. Emmett McCarthy of the Colorado State Collegian jokingly suggested the outcome was already in hand before the tipoff because of some shoes:

At the end of the first half, that looked to be the case.

Although Utah's offense looked sporadic in the first half, the Utes controlled the rebounding battle with ease and played stout defense. Utah out-rebounded Fresno State 26-8 in the first half, and Poeltl had 10 of them. Despite that, Fresno State only trailed by 11 points at halftime.

Utah's crisp ball movement, however, was on display in the first half. It resulted in dunks such as this, shared by NCAA March Madness:

The Utes tried to run their offense through Poeltl, but the Bulldogs made sure to double-team him each time he touched the ball. Josh Furlong of KSL.com thought Fresno State was getting away with too much contact in the post:

Both of these teams are mediocre at rebounding, so it was shocking to see one team having so much success, per Jonathan Tjarks of the Ringer:

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Fresno State is 54th in the country in rebounds. Utah is 56th. They shouldn't be killing them this bad (26-8) on the glass.

— Jonathan Tjarks (@JonathanTjarks) March 18, 2016"

Scott Bemis of KSEE 24 in Fresno, California, thought the Bulldogs started to figure out Utah's offense heading into the game's final 20 minutes:

As the second half progressed, Fresno State slowly chipped away at the lead. The Bulldogs began to force turnovers and turn them into points. Three came on a Harris layup, plus a free throw, which cut the Utah lead to 37-31 with 15:36 remaining:

With 10:34 remaining, Fresno State took its first lead of the game on a Julien Lewis three-pointer. That capped off a 15-3 run by the 14th-seeded Bulldogs. Campus Insiders reacted:

But Utah responded almost immediately, scoring seven straight points. Like a blitzkrieg, Utah went on a 19-2 run over the next six minutes to take a 66-50 lead.

Andy Glockner of the Cauldron did not seem surprised:

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Utah up 14. So much for that.

— Andy Glockner (@AndyGlockner) March 18, 2016"

Despite watching the lead dwindle down to seven points, Utah managed to hang on and put the Bulldogs away. There was cause for concern after the Utes' performance against the Oregon Ducks in the Pac-12 title game, and a repeat of Thursday's second-half performance will not get it done against Gonzaga. But Utah has a chance to regroup and prepare for Saturday's second round.

Fresno State was the lone Mountain West school in the tournament, and the Bulldogs hung around for as long as they could. In the end, though, Utah's size in the paint proved to be too much.

Postgame Reaction

Utah almost let the game slip away with Fresno State's second half surge, but Utes head coach Larry Krystkowiak never lost faith in his players.

"I've got a lot of trust in our basketball team," Krystkowiak said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "That run, a lot of that was self-inflicted, a combination of some turnovers and a couple of 'me shots' instead of 'we shots.'"

Fresno State's lone lead lasted for less than a minute, but Utah didn't call a timeout to regroup. Krystkowiak usually doesn't call for time until a little after two minutes, but that wasn't needed.

"I was real curious how we were going to respond," he said, per the same source. "Obviously a timeout would have been used if we couldn't stop the bleeding. But it has been a little bit of a consistent trait of our team to bounce back."

Poeltl's rebounds were a huge advantage for the Utes, and Fresno State had a difficult time trying to contain the 7-footer.

"He's a great player," Harris continued. "We knew it was going to be a challenge for us. We knew trying to jump up and use athleticism wasn't going to be enough against him. You have to put a body on him."