No. 23 Utah started off a difficult Texas road trip with a tough 70-61 loss to Baylor at Foster Pavilion in Waco, Texas, on Tuesday night.
While the Utes had their chances to earn another Big 12 road win, they couldn’t overcome turnover struggles and getting outplayed down the stretch in falling to the Bears.
3 takeaways
Turnovers were a major issue for Utah. The Utes were careless with the ball against Baylor, giving away a season-high tying 21 turnovers that led to 25 Bears points.
Fifteen of those turnovers for Utah came in the first half and led to 17 Baylor points, helping the Bears take a nine-point lead into the break.
While Gianna Kneepkens tied for the team lead with 17 points, she also had seven turnovers, a third of the Utes’ giveaways.
Ines Vieira also had four turnovers, and every Utah starter had at least two.
Utah’s final turnover off the night, from Kneepkens, led to a jumper moments later and gave Baylor a 66-59 lead with just over two minutes to play.
“I thought our kids battled back and responded in that third quarter, but when you have almost the same amount of turnovers as you do field goals made, you’re not going to win at any level,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said in his 700 AM postgame interview.
Utah had post struggles and no answer for Aaronette Vonleh. Outside of another solid effort off the bench for Reese Ross and some extended minutes for Samantha Crispe, it was not a good night for the Utes in the post.
Jenna Johnson, who dealt with some foul trouble, had another off night offensively, finishing scoreless on just two shot attempts. It’s the ninth straight game Johnson has scored in single figures for the Utes, and her first scoreless game of the year.
“We need to get Jenna Johnson going. I mean, she didn’t score tonight — 0-for-2. We’ve got to find a way for her to get going, and she cannot let foul trouble dictate her aggressiveness on offense,” Petersen said.
“That’s probably the most disappointing thing in terms of our offensive inconsistency from our post position.”
Maye Toure, who had been averaging 14.0 points per game in Big 12 play, ended the night with six points on 3 of 8 shooting, while she added seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Toure didn’t score in the first half.
Ross had 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists to lead the Utah frontcourt.
Baylor’s Aaronette Vonleh, meanwhile, paced the Bears with 13 first-half points on 6 of 8 shooting. The 6-foot-3 center ended the night with a game-high 19 points on an efficient 9 of 12 shooting.
Vonleh was able to consistently get down low enough in the post for easier shots at the hoop as she led four Baylor players in double-figures.
The Bears ended the night with a 44-28 edge in points in the paint.
“It’s hard to stop somebody like Vonleh just with the size that she does have, but we cannot allow her to get so low inside. I mean, shooting 9-for-12, like shooting fish in a barrel, right? We can’t allow that to happen,” Petersen said.
A turnover-filled start and poor finish for Utah kept Baylor in the lead much of the night. While Utah never fell behind by double-digits until the second half, the Utes had seven turnovers in the first quarter that played a big role in them trailing 16-13 after one quarter.
As a result, Utah spent much of the night playing from behind — the Utes only led for 27 seconds in the game.
The last time Utah led came late in the third quarter, when it turned a 10-point deficit into a one-point lead at 48-47 with an 11-0 run that included two Maty Wilke 3-pointers and another from Vieira.
Wilke ended the night with a season-high 17 points for Utah — she hit three 3-pointers in the third quarter — and added three rebounds and two assists.
Baylor, though, scored in the final minute of the third to regain the lead, and while Utah was able to keep it a one- or two-possession game for much of the fourth quarter — and even tied the game at 53-53 at one point — the Bears went on a 10-0 run beginning with 3:30 to play to put the game away.
”Our kids need to lock in and be able to play basketball the way we conduct ourselves as a program, and we didn’t see that the first half. We spent a lot of energy coming back,” Petersen said. “They hit a few timely shots that stole the momentum back.”
Baylor ended up shooting 72.7% in the fourth quarter, 62.5% in the second half and 53.7% overall, while the Utes shot just 33.3% in the final period and 40.7% for the game.
“I thought we left a lot of open 3s out there tonight,” said Petersen, whose team was 7 of 23 from 3-point range, including 0 of 3 in the fourth quarter.
What’s next
Utah will stay in Texas for a matchup with No. 10 TCU on Friday.
The Utes (13-4, 4-2 Big 12) will take on the Horned Frogs at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, with tipoff at 5:30 p.m. MST. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and can be heard on 700 AM.
TCU (18-1, 6-0 Big 12) beat UCF 90-81 on Tuesday night.