What Utah basketball players said after loss to Houston

Keanu Dawes and Seydou Traore discussed their team's performance following 14-point loss to the Cougars

Utah Runnin' Utes forward Keanu Dawes (8) drives the ball against Houston Cougars center Chris Cenac Jr. (5) during the second half at Jon M. Huntsman Center. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Utah got the full Houston experience for 40 minutes at the Huntsman Center Tuesday night, making for quite the learning experience the Runnin' Utes can potentially take with them as they strive to finish the 2025-26 campaign out on a high note.

Utah (9-15, 1-10 Big 12) was blitzed and stymied throughout by the Cougars (22-2, 10-1 Big 12), who led virtually the whole night as they rode the hot hand of Emanuel Sharp to a 66-52 victory on Tuesday.

Sharp set the tone early with a barrage from downtown. The senior guard wound up tying his season-high of 27 points while knocking down a career-best eight 3-pointers, six of which came in the first half of Houston's fifth consecutive win in Big 12 play.

On the other side, Keanue Dawes led Utah with 15 points and eight rebounds while going 7-of-11 from the floor. Seydou Traore had was 5-of-9 shooting and ended with 12 points and four assists in 32 minutes of action.

Here's what Dawes and Traore had to say after the game.

Dawes on facing one of the best defensive teams in the country in Houston

"It's good practice for the stretch of games that we have to finish the season. Obviously, they're the best defensive team in the country, or in my opinion, at least that we played. So just to be able to kind of get that out the way and have a clear vision going forward is good."

Dawes on positive takeaways from losses to Kansas and Houston

"We that we can really compete with everybody. I think this game probably got away from us faster than Kansas. I think it was about like the last 8 minutes and Kansas, things got away from us, but for the most part, we can really compete with any team now. We just have to put it together for 40 minutes."

Traore on Utah's turnovers

"Like KD said, [Houston is] a great defensive team, so you just want to take care of the ball as much as possible. Thirteen [turnovers] is kind of a lot playing a top 10 team like this, because they can execute every time. We got to take care of the ball."

Traore on competing against Houston

"It's a great program; just going out there playing against that type of style of play, they take pride in defense. I was talking to some of the guys after the game, and that's their MO. So, playing a team like that for 40 minutes is definitely a good test; not only for me, but for the team. We just need to be able to execute, going off the things we've been working on all week against them."