Utah’s seventh straight victory came with relative ease, as the Utes went on the road and rolled past Arizona State 98-62 at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona, on Saturday.
The dominant result was sparked by Utah’s veteran leaders and a season-high shooting effort from 3-point range.
“(The) kids were locked in and ready to go today. Super proud of them again,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen told ESPN 700 AM. “Any road win, I don’t care who you play, there’s a lot of elements that play into it.
“… Extremely proud of our focus, how we came in ready to go. It wasn’t perfect, but the energy, the effort, it was there, and that’s what you need this time of year to be peaking at the right time.”
3 takeaways
It was raining 3s in Tempe for Utah. The Utes put the Sun Devils on ice by connecting on 18 of 32 3-point attempts.
The 18 3-pointers were a season high for the Utes and the most since they hit 18 against Eastern Kentucky on Nov. 19, 2023.
Three Utah players made four or more 3s for Utah, with Kennady McQueen hitting 6 of 8 (tying her career high), Gianna Kneepkens making 4 of 7 and Maty Wilke going 4 of 8.
Even reserve Sam Crispe had her first multi-game 3-point day of the season, as six different Utes made 3s on the day.
Utah made 16 of their 3-pointers over the game’s first three quarters and shot over 50% from 3 in every period.
“I keep crediting our kids because we just have an unselfish bunch that knows if they give up a good shot for a great shot, we’re going to knock it down,” Petersen said.
“Kennady got us going early, then it kind of became contagious because we kept sharing the basketball, and part of that as well is we got stops. We’re able to run.”
The domination was across the board. As they’ve done many times over the course of their career, Kneepkens and McQueen led the Utes’ efforts in the win.
Kneepkens put up her second double-double of the season, finishing with a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds to go with three assists.
McQueen added a season-high 20 points, with eight of those coming in the third quarter when Utah pushed its lead to 27.
Wilke also had 18 and Maye Toure put up 12 points and eight rebounds as the Utes got solid contributions across the board.
Utah outshot the Sun Devils, 53.3% to 34.4%, and outrebounded Arizona State 44-31. The Utes’ bench also outscored ASU 37-6, and Utah had 24 assists to seven for the Sun Devils.
“It goes back to the defense, but just our unselfish characteristics that each of our players have,” Petersen said. “It’s just so cool to see.”
Saturday’s results set Utah up with a gigantic matchup next week. Going into Saturday, Utah and No. 20 Oklahoma State were tied in the Big 12 standings in fourth place, one game behind league leaders Kansas State, TCU and Baylor.
The Cowboys, though, lost to BYU 68-64 later in the day Saturday, leaving Utah in fourth place in the conference all by itself.
A top four finish during the conference regular-season slate would give the Utes a top four seed in next month’s Big 12 tournament and a double bye into the tournament quarterfinals.
Utah (20-5, 11-3 Big 12) is favored in three of its final four games, according to ESPN’s analytics. ESPN gives the Utes a 78.4% win probability against Oklahoma State, and they are also heavily favored in a road game at Cincinnati and at home against BYU.
The only game where Utah is viewed as an underdog is at No. 18 West Virginia on Feb. 26.
That makes Tuesday’s matchup with Oklahoma State (20-5, 10-4 Big 12) all the more important.
“They’re a really good team. It’s going to be a fun offensive battle. We run a lot of similar actions,” Petersen said. “… They have the firepower to hang with us in the Huntsman Center, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’re up for a challenge.”
What’s next
As mentioned, Utah returns home to host Oklahoma State on Tuesday (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+).
“I would love for the Huntsman to be packed for that game because it is a big, crucial game for both programs as we are wrapping up regular season Big 12 play. Salt Lake City, come on out,” Petersen said.
That precedes a road game at Cincinnati on Sunday, Feb. 23 (noon MST, ESPN+). The Bearcats are 14-10 and 6-8 in conference play after losing to Kansas State Saturday.