3 takeaways from Utah’s win at West Virginia
· Yahoo Sports
Three days after Utah couldn’t hold a late lead in falling at Cincinnati, the Runnin’ Utes reversed those fortunes to beat West Virginia 61-56 at Hope Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Wednesday night.
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After the Mountaineers cut Utah’s 15-point second-half lead to two points, the Utes came together and held off a West Virginia charge to snap a seven-game losing streak.
That was Utah’s first road win since Jan. 15, 2025.
Here are three takeaways from the win that pushes Utah’s record to 10-16 overall and 2-11 in Big 12 play.
Hot starts to both halves
Utah had its best start all season, jumping out to an 18-3 lead over the shellshocked Mountaineers.
The Utes hit their first six shots of the game and ended up taking a 31-21 lead into halftime after enduring a couple scoring slumps.
Coming out of halftime, Utah again got off to a great start, pushing their lead at high as 15 on three different occasions. The last time made it a 45-30 game with 14:35 to play.
Utah made five of its first seven shots of the second half, before West Virginia started the rally.
The Utes hang on this time
West Virginia’s last two wins involved the Mountaineers coming back from 14-point second-half deficits both times, and for a while, it looked like West Virginia might be able to pull it off again.
The Mountaineers whittled down that Utah lead, and after a 7-0 run over a minute and a half stretch, West Virginia trailed 53-51 with 3:59 to play.
Utah could have folded, like they did when the Utes lost 69-65 to Cincinnati on Sunday after the Bearcats scored the game’s final nine points.
Instead, it was the Utes making the key plays down the stretch and forcing West Virginia into mistakes.
Utah’s defensive effort set the tone
All year, Alex Jensen has preached that the Utes need to be solid defensively and let that lead to offensive rhythm.
It worked against the Mountaineers, as Utah set the tone of the game with its defensive effort, led by Seydou Traore.
Traore started the game off guarding West Virginia’s top scorer, Honor Huff, and though Huff ended up with 12 points, it came on 4 of 15 shooting.
In the final minute when a 3 could have tied things, Traore recovered on defense and got his hand in Huff’s face on a 3-point attempt, forcing an air ball.
Traore ended up with 17 points, six rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists in his most well-rounded game of the season.
Terrence Brown and Don McHenry each had 16 points, while Brown added eight rebounds and three assists.
Utah ended up outrebounding West Virginia 38-28.