'They punched us early': Utah women bounce back to upset No. 22 West Virginia

SALT LAKE CITY — It was a different vibe Tuesday night at the Huntsman Center.

A few days after a blowout loss to then-No. 19 Texas Tech, the Utah women's basketball team looked like a new version of itself — or was it a return to form? — Tuesday night against No. 22 West Virginia.

With a renewed sense of aggressiveness and team effort, Utah struck first on a driving layup by Brooke Walker and never looked back in 71-64 win over the visiting Mountaineers.

"Credit to Utah, they punched us early," West Virginia head coach Mark Kellogg said. "Stayed with that basically the entire night. We made a couple little runs there in the second half, but that first half was not very good from our standards. We knew they would come in disappointed after their last game. Wanted to make sure we kind of match that intensity. We did not."

Utah head coach Gavin Petersen said he was "extremely proud" of his team for the bounce-back effort after Saturday's effort, but was more pleased with the team getting back to "Utah basketball" of just "being connected, playing with intensity, locked in, focused, and just competing."

"Just really proud of our players for putting that game aside," he added. "That's hard to do, especially when you lose at home, but we bounced back and so extremely proud."

Utah (15-6, 6-3 Big 12) led wire-to-wire and built up an 18-point lead midway through the third quarter before West Virginia (17-5, 7-3 Big 12) got into a rhythm and made Utah work a bit more to come away with a win over another ranked opponent.

West Virginia employed a full-court press after Utah went up by 18 and forced the Utes into multiple turnovers that helped the Mountaineers to an 8-0 run. Utah rebuffed that initial run, but West Virginia continued to push and got the lead down to 6 — amid unforced errors and missteps from the Utes.

Petersen said his team was simply tired after building up the nearly 20-point lead, and that mixed with West Virginia's need to stay in the game contributed to Utah's lull.

"The look on our players faces, they were tired," Petersen said. "Maybe West Virginia was, too, but if they wanted to win, they had to turn it up. It's a credit to them; that's how they play, and they turn it up at opportune times."

Reese Ross and LA Sneed hit back-to-back 3-pointers to stave off the West Virginia run, and Utah ultimately kept its advantage. In the end, all West Virginia could do was play the foul game in hopes Utah would miss shots at the free-throw line, but the Utes closed out the game making 6-of-8 free throws.

Sneed led the way for the Utes Tuesday night and finished with a team-high 15 points, including going 3-of-4 from the 3-point line, and three assists off the bench. Her counterpart, Brooke Walker, finished with 7 points, five steals, three rebounds and three assists to highlight the dynamic guard play from the two.

Lani White contributed 14 points, while Chyra Evans and Ross added 12 points apiece in the win. Ross finished the game with a double-double after collecting 10 of the team's 29 rebounds against West Virginia.

Utah was outrebounded in the game 33-29 — including 15 offensive rebounds — and allowed West Virginia to get 23 points off its 21 turnovers. But after a cold night from behind the 3-point line against Texas Tech, Utah got into a consistent rhythm Tuesday and hit 10 3-pointers on 18 attempts.

The Mountaineers had three players finish in double figures, with guard Jordan Harrison topping the scoreboard with 18 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Gia Cooke added 11 points, while Carter McCray supplied an additional 10 points and seven rebounds in the loss.

Utah opened up the game as the more aggressive team but couldn't put much distance on West Virginia as the two teams stayed within two possessions of each other. Utah found its opening in the second quarter and outscored West Virginia 22-18 to control a 12-point lead at the halftime break that ballooned to 18 before the Mountaineers' run.

"They just played harder; I mean, that's what they did," Kellogg said. "They were more active, they were working a little bit harder than we were. We were losing our assignments and giving that group open threes, which is a terrible idea on the offensive end, and then it just took us too long to find any offensive rhythm."

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