Utah survives its early struggles, late rally from Kansas to earn Big 12 road win

Utes trailed by 10 early in second quarter before Gavin Petersen’s squad turned things around and eventually made some big 3s.

For a half Wednesday night, Kansas had the Utah women’s basketball team out of its usual rhythm on offense.

That helped the Jayhawks take an eight-point lead through one quarter and lead by as many as 10 points.

In the second half, though, the Utes began to better resemble themselves offensively, particularly from 3-point range, and it helped Utah earn a hard-fought 62-59 victory at Phog Allen Fieldhouse in the Utes’ first game since they knocked off No. 8 TCU last Saturday.

“We have to have a response every game. I mean, we lost a couple ones that we should have won early in the preseason,” Utah senior guar Lani White said in a postgame interview on ESPN+. “This entire season, we just try to respond every game, fixing the things that we need to change, and honing in on things that we’re really good at.”

The methodical comeback and victory still had a tense ending, though, after Kansas trimmed a 62-50 lead down to a single possession in the final minute, as Utah went the final four and a half minutes without a point.

It was reminiscent of Utah’s win over Arizona to start Big 12 play, when the Utes led by 16 but had to get a defensive stop on the final possession to win.

Elle Evans’ 3 with 39.3 seconds to go made it 62-59, and the Jayhawks chose to play defense instead of foul on the next possession. White shot a fadeaway that didn’t draw iron, and it left Kansas with 7.9 seconds and with a chance to tie.

Following a timeout, S’mya Nichols, who had 19 points and five assists for Kansas, got a good look from straightaway, but her 3-point attempt came up short and Utah rebounded the ball.

The nerve-wracking moments weren’t over — Reese Ross was fouled after the 3-point miss and went to the free-throw line, but she missed both and gave Kansas hope with 0.8 seconds to play.

Lilly Meister’s 3 was well short, though, and Utah hung on.

“We have been working all week on our defense. Kansas had a lot of sets, so we were just trying to be (connected) within our defense, switching everything, just trying to talk. But we’ve come a long way defensively,” White said.

White was a catalyst for the Utes’ second-quarter rally, when they turned a 20-10 game into a 20-all tie and eventually went into the half down two.

She scored seven straight for the Utes in just over a minute and a half, and it helped a once-moribund offense start to get on track.

White ended up scoring 17 points and finishing with five rebounds, two steals and an assist — to go with two turnovers — in pacing the Utes.

Ross, the Utes’ hard-nosed front court player, nearly had another double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, and Chyra Evans had 10 points and six rebounds.

Those two, in particular, helped Utah finish with a 42-30 rebounding edge, and the Utes turned that into a 12-7 edge in second-chance points after grabbing 11 offensive rebounds to four for Kansas.

Utah’s second-half 3-point shooting, albeit inefficient, also played a big role in the win.

At one point in the third quarter, both Utah and Kansas had hit just two 3-pointers each — a rare poor shooting effort from two of the best 3-point shooting teams in the Big 12.

The Utes, though, finally created some separation by hitting from outside. First, White made a step-back 3 to give Utah a then game-high four-point lead at 41-37.

Then, freshman guard LA Sneed drilled two 3-pointers, including one as the shot ticked down in the final seconds of the third quarter, to make it 47-41 Utes going into the final period.

Utah shot 57.1% in the third quarter and 4 of 8 from 3-point range.

The Utes ended up making 9 of 28 3-point shots — not the most promising outside shooting night, but far succeeding Kansas’ 3 of 16 struggles.

It was enough to helped offset the Utes losing the turnover battle 17-9 and getting outscored 14-6 in points off turnovers.

In conference play, a win — no matter how it comes — counts the same way in the victory column, and for the Utes, they’ll take a two-game win streak into a road game at Kansas State on Saturday.

“It means everything,” White said, of winning on the road. “Our motto is, we’re down on the road always. I mean, it’s us against the crowd, it’s us against traveling, it’s us against the refs. Always. So (the) mentality for us, is we got to fight.”

Source: Utah News