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- Utah secured a 69-42 win over Houston, despite early struggles.
- Utah dominated rebounds, with Maye Toure scoring 22 points and 12 rebounds.
- Houston's Laila Blair scored 16 points, but Utah's strong finish sealed the victory.
SALT LAKE CITY — Despite an eight-game difference in wins this season, No. 22 Utah couldn't get the separation it hoped for early against Houston.
Utah built up a game-high 9 point lead, but couldn't stretch the lead further as Houston continued to keep the game close.
"I thought we did a really good job for two and a half quarters of disrupting them and forcing them into things that they didn't want to do," Houston head coach Ronald Hughey said.
Even then, Utah dominated the boards (56-26) — including a season-high 19 offensive rebounds — and in the post, outscoring Houston 48-12, but the Utes shot just 40% from the floor for much of the game to give the Cougars an opportunity.
The home team got the job done, though, and finally got into a rhythm at the end of the third quarter that carried over in the fourth — a run that ultimately spanned an 18-2 wave — to pull away for a 69-42 win over the visiting Cougars.
By the time the Utes figured out a way to beat Houston, there was nothing the visiting team could do to stop it.
"It took us a little while, but I am so proud of our effort," Utah head coach Gavin Petersen said. "And a lot of times, effort is displayed through the stat sheet by rebounding."
Hughey echoed that sentiment, especially with the offensive rebounds, saying that Utah made them reset their defense several consecutive times, which made it difficult to stay fully engaged; "it wears you down," he said.
"We just didn't make a commitment to rebounding like we needed to," Hughey said. "Then, on top of that, you start getting cold from the field and forcing shots and things like that. And so just gotta refocus and get back to being Houston."
Maye Toure dominated on both ends of the floor, finishing with a team-high 22 points and 12 rebounds, while adding two assists and a block. Gianna Kneepkens added 15 points, including three made 3-pointers, nine rebounds and seven assists in the win.
A Kneepkens 3-pointer with just over three minutes left in the third quarter capped a small run that opened up the shooting for the Utes, and the team took advantage for the duration of the game.
"You've got to always believe the next shot is going in, and just trust the offense, trust that through your hard work and your skill set and all those things, that the next one's going in," Petersen said of trusting that shots would eventually fall. "So sometimes we get in our own way in that regard, but I just knew that it was a matter of time."
The Cougars had only one player finish in double figures, Laila Blair, who finished with 16 points, four rebounds and three assists.
