Utah’s seven-game win streak came to an unceremonious end Tuesday night when No. 24 Oklahoma State made the plays down the stretch to win 68-64 at the Huntsman Center.
While the Utes held a nine-point lead late in the third quarter, the Cowgirls’ defense made things tough for Utah in the fourth quarter and Oklahoma State benefited from a dominant game on the boards.
The Utes (20-6, 11-4 Big 12) had a chance to end the night in a tie for third place in the Big 12 standings, but with the loss, they are in a tie for fourth with Oklahoma State (21-5, 11-4 Big 12) and West Virginia (21-5, 11-4 Big 12).
“It was a kind of a weird up-and-down type of game for us, but credit to Oklahoma State. They were the tougher team tonight,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said.
3 takeaways
Utah had its chances, but the usual fight and execution wasn’t there. The game went back-and-forth throughout the night, as there were eight lead changes and eight ties.
Late in the third quarter, it looked like Utah was in solid position for an eighth straight win after Jenna Johnson and Ines Vieira nailed 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give the Utes a 56-47 lead with 42 seconds left in the quarter.
Oklahoma State’s Micah Gray, though, answered with a 3 of her own to make it a six-point game going into the final period, and then in the fourth quarter, the Utes simply didn’t look like themselves — from shooting selection to rebounding, and even in the effort category.
Despite this, Utah managed to tie the game at 64-64 on a Maty Wilke layup with 1:24 to play. On the Cowgirls’ next possession though, the Utes gave up a pair of offensive rebounds — both to 6-foot-3 Praise Egharevba — and Egharevba scored on a layup while being fouled with 32 seconds to play.
Egharevba hit the subsequent free throw to make it 67-64.
On Utah’s ensuing possession, a miscommunication led to a Kennady McQueen turnover, and then after the Utes were forced to foul multiple times before putting Oklahoma State in the bonus, the Cowgirls got another free throw with 14.6 seconds left to make it a four-point game.
Gianna Kneepkens, who was held without a 3-pointer on the night, airballed a fadeaway 3-point attempt on Utah’s final possession, and the Cowgirls ran out the clock.
The Utes were outscored 18-8 in the fourth quarter while shooting 4 of 13 (30.8%) and turning the ball over four times in the period.
“I think we had some decent looks at the basket. We started settling for 3s way too much, especially from our center. Like, we’ve got to be able to take advantage of some size advantages that we do have inside,” Petersen said. “And we did. We just didn’t do that tonight. We just kind of started playing disjointed. We just were not collectively moving the ball and sharing the ball like we typically do.”
Oklahoma State dominated the offensive boards and made Utah pay. The Cowgirls had a big edge in rebounding, particularly on the offensive end.
Oklahoma State ended the game with a 47-31 rebounding edge, including 20-10 on the offensive glass. The Cowgirls turned that into an 18-5 advantage in second-chance points, which was big in a game that came down to the wire.
“It made a huge difference, and they’re a team that’s really good defensively, too,” Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt said.
“... Those rebounds were huge for us to give us second chance opportunities, and I just really challenged our team to be the aggressor tonight. We absolutely were not in our last game (a loss at BYU), and I felt like that was going to make the difference, not even because I thought that we could do that against Utah, but it was more about getting back to us, you know, and being the aggressor.”
It was a disjointed game, devoid of rhythm on both sides. There were 41 fouls called in the game, and that helped contribute to a choppy effort on both sides.
To Oklahoma State’s credit, the Cowgirls were able to overcome their shortcomings better than Utah was.
Gray seemed to have an answer every time the Utes were threatening to pull away, as she led the Cowgirls with 18 points and made four 3-pointers.
She hit two fourth-quarter 3-pointers, and both times it gave Oklahoma State the lead back.
“Micah Gray was really special and stepped up and made some big-time shots for us that I think gave her teammates a lot of confidence and poise,” Hoyt said.
While the Cowgirls shot worse from the field than Utah — at 36.5% to 43.1% — Oklahoma State was much better at the free-throw line. The Cowgirls hit 16 of 18 from the charity line, while the Utes had an inexplicably bad night from the line, making just 9 of 16.
“When you shoot 9-for-16 from the free-throw line, that is not a recipe for success,” Petersen said. “I don’t care where you play the game, those are things that you can fully control and focus on, and again, hats off to them.”
Neither team was particularly good from 3-point range, with the Cowgirls hitting one more 3 than Utah (six to five), but Oklahoma State made half of its 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Kneepkens was the only Utah player in double-figures, as she had 16 points on 7 of 15 shooting. She was 0 of 5 from 3, though, only the second time she hasn’t made a 3-pointer all season.
“They had good defense. They were going over on screens, so I feel like the pull-up was there a little bit more and attacking downhill, and then I just didn’t really hit my 3s tonight,” Kneepkens said. “That happens, but you know, I think we just have to learn from playing hard games like that happen.”
Johnson, who had nine points, seven rebounds and five assists, said it was frustrating to lose when the Utes had the lead going into the fourth quarter, but she is confident Utah can rebound well from the setback.
“I feel like we’ve seen this a few games now where we have two good quarters, three good quarters, but we don’t put a full game together necessarily,” she said.
“I think just that comes back to in practice, making sure that we stay intense the entire time, and then that’s going to translate over to games. I’m a senior. We have a lot of seniors on this team. We have to take accountability for that and lead. I think that’s the first thing, and then when we put together full games, I think we’re gonna be in a good spot.”
What’s next
The Utes will hit the road for a pair of games, starting with a contest at Cincinnati on Sunday (noon MST, ESPN+). The Bearcats (14-10, 6-8 Big 12) will play at Texas Tech on Wednesday before hosting the Utes.
Following that, Utah faces West Virginia on Feb. 26 (5 p.m. MST, ESPN+). The No. 17 Mountaineers (21-5, 11-4 Big 12) are coming off a 70-57 victory over No. 12 Kansas State on Monday.