Defensive effort builds Utes’ confidence as schedule gets tougher

There are no days off — yet — for the Utah women’s basketball team.

Since former assistant Gavin Petersen replaced Lynne Roberts last week, the Utes have been adjusting and they avoided a near-upset Friday night. On Sunday, the team felt more orderly and dispatched Montana State 72-53 in another non-league game in front of just over 3,000 fans at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

Gianna Kneepkens led three players in double figures with 19 points and Reese Ross came off the bench and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds as Utah improved to 5-1 and seemingly gained more confidence as it prepares for a long flight to the Caribbean for the Cayman Islands Classic.

The Utes will face a pair of still-undefeated teams — Thursday against Mississippi State and then sixth-ranked Notre Dame on Saturday.

“Great win for our team against a really good Montana State team,” said Petersen, who is in his 10th season at Utah and took over when Roberts accepted the head job with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. “We had to find that juice, and we were able to do so over the course of four periods.”

The Utes trailed 4-0 early but grabbed the lead for good on a free throw by Samantha Crispe and consecutive layups by Ines Vieira and Maya Toure secured the margin. Utah built the lead to 19-12 by the end of the first period was never threatened.

The Utes shot nearly 52% for the game and made 8 of 25 3-pointers (32%) — led by Kneepkens’ four from long range.

Kneepkens is Utah’s leading scorer (17.3 points per game) and is shooting 50% so far on 3-pointers. Toure added 12 points and Kennady McQueen 11.

“It’s easy when my teammates find me,” Kneepkens said. “Finding the flow in our offense and getting back to moving the ball was key.”

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Vieira was the main contributor. After taking over as point guard midway through last season, she had nine points and a team-high eight assists. Vieira was also praised for her defensive effort on Montana State’s Esmeralda Morales, who led the Big Sky Conference in scoring last year at Portland State and is viewed as a valuable part of MSU’s formula this season to challenge for the league title.

The Bobcats, however, had nine turnovers in the first quarter alone and Morales finished with just three points on 1 of 12 shooting. Center Maren Dykstra led MSU with 22 points and earned a feather in her cap for her effort while playing against what will likely be the toughest opponent on the Bobcats’ schedule.

Utah, meanwhile, will continue its quest to upgrade its game under Petersen, who said he hoped to use the long airplane ride to “get some sleep” and then prepare a game plan as the Utes’ non-conference schedule reaches its most-difficult point.

“I was glad we got to play as many people as we did and I did a better job of finding the right (player) combinations,” he said. “I’m looking forward to connecting as a team and hanging out together. This is where the memories are made that last a lifetime.”