The normally attacking, efficient Utah women’s basketball team didn’t show up at the Huntsman Center on Wednesday night in a matchup of top 25 teams.
Instead, No. 12 Kansas State dominated on both ends in handing the No. 22 Utes their first loss since Thanksgiving day, as Utah fell 71-47.
It was also Utah’s first home loss of the season.
The win keeps the Wildcats (16-1, 4-0 Big 12) unbeaten in league play, while the Utes (12-3, 3-1 Big 12) lost their first conference game.
“I just didn’t see the fire and the hunger in our players’ eyes. Not sure why, if it was just maybe coming off a big win, losing Kennady (McQueen), but it just even at shootaround today, there was something off, something missing,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said. “We as a coaching staff need to kind of quickly get our players back to feeling fresh, feeling healthy, as best we can, and next opponent, we’ve got to take care of business now.”
3 takeaways
The Wildcats took the fight to the Utes. Kansas State came into the game leading the nation both in field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense, and that was on prime display at the Huntsman.
Kansas State ended up shooting 49.2% from the field and made eight 3-pointers, while Utah hit a season-low 30% of its shots.
The Wildcats, in particular, were able to knock down some shots from long range when passing out of a double team in the post.
“I think it just shows that our offense is flowing when we’re able to find open shooters,” Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee said. “I think it is plays like that we definitely build off of when we go on runs and stuff. It’s just a testament to us continuing to just have a fluid offense.”
Lee, Kansas State’s All-American center, scored 14 points and had six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal in another solid all-around game.
She was one of several Wildcats to shine on the night.
Serena Sundell scored a team-high 15 points and added five assists. Jaelyn Glenn had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and she was one of three players with five or more assists. Temira Poindexter also scored 11 points — she and Glenn both hit three 3-pointers each.
Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie credited Zyanna Walker (eight points, six assists) for setting the tone early in the game on defense.
“I thought she was disruptive up top,” Mittie said. “And then offensively, Poindexter got some early looks. Proud of our group for getting off against a really good Utah team. We had a good night tonight.”
Normally, Utah is adept at finishing with a high number of assists — the team is in the top 15 nationally this season — but against the Wildcats, the Utes had just eight on 18 made buckets.
By contrast, Kansas State, the nation’s leader in assists, had 22 on 30 made field goals.
A slow start got Utah off on the wrong foot, and the Utes never recovered. The first quarter went about as bad as it could have for Utah.
The Utes trailed 20-7 after one quarter, and they shot just 20% from the field in that period. Kansas State, meanwhile, shot 53.3%.
That included hitting 6 of 7 to start the game, as the Wildcats built a 15-4 lead 3 1/2 minutes in.
Utah, meanwhile, hit just 1 of 11 from the field over a five-minute stretch after making 2 of 4 to start the quarter.
It was the kind of inauspicious start that Utah could never recover from.
The Wildcats built their lead to 29-11 with 5:49 until halftime, but Utah went on an 11-2 run to end the half and trim that deficit in half in the Utes’ one stretch where it took the fight to the Wildcats.
Kansas State missed 6 of 7 shots to end the first half, while Utah made three of its last five — that was sparked by Gianna Kneepkens’ first bucket of the night, a 3-pointer.
For as much momentum as that ending to the first half built, though, Utah couldn’t sustain it.
Instead, Kansas State outscored Utah 26-13 in the third quarter before cruising to the victory and leading by as many as 30.
“I want to utilize this type of game, especially at home, to light a fire. Our fans deserve a little bit more fight from us, and it just wasn’t there in the third quarter. And maybe we’re tired, I don’t know,” Petersen said.
Utah’s coach made sure to point out that it’s one game, and the season is a process.
It’s a process Utah is going through without starter Kennady McQueen, who suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Utes’ last game, a 75-67 win at Iowa State.
“It’s one game. So we lost one game. That’s it, and we’ll get back. We’ve got to focus, distractions can come in a lot of different forms, different ways, and we’ve got to just focus in,” Petersen said. “We’ve just got to focus in on the task at hand, because we’re playing some good opponents and we’re getting everybody’s best.”
Kansas State controlled the post, and in the process, the game. Utah struggled to establish itself inside and missed a wide variety of short shots, while the Wildcats held a 40-30 edge in points in the paint.
One game after scoring a season-high 24 points, Maye Toure was 2 of 12 from the field and scored eight points to go with seven rebounds, while Utah’s other starting forward, Jenna Johnson, was 2 of 8 and scored four points.
“I think our centers just take so much pride in our post defense, and I think that just didn’t change tonight. We knew they had a good inside game,” Lee said.
Kneepkens (12 points) and Reese Ross (11) were the only two Utes to score in double-figures.
Even then, it took some time for Kneepkens to get going. Her first made field goal came with 4:06 left in the first half, as she started 0 of 5 from the field.
The countless number of early misses and Kansas State’s post defense played a big role in impacting the Utes, as their normally efficient offense was absent the majority of the night.
“We missed quite a bit of layups, shots that usually fall for us. And then the other thing, I think, they took what Iowa State did, and they were going to let Jenna, Maye, our post players shoot from 3. Well, our starters went 0-for-5,” Petersen said.
“When you start missing shots, you start pressing a little bit more and you just get a little more tense, and that leads to, what else are you gonna miss? You start missing layups. You start missing assignments in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish offensively.”
Will the game serve as a wake-up call after Utah had won seven straight?
“I’d say it leaves a bitter taste, for sure,” Ross said. “Nobody likes losing, especially at home. And yeah, we can look at it as a wake-up call, or we can learn from it. And I think there’s a lot to take away from this game, both good and bad, and we’re going to reevaluate, going to go in locker room, watch some film and dive in, just debrief the game and see what we can take a look at and do better moving forward.”
What’s next?
Utah will stay at home this week and host Houston on Saturday.
The game will be a part of a doubleheader. The women’s game will tip off at 1:30 p.m. MST, and the Utah men will play Oklahoma State at 5 p.m. at the Huntsman Center.