Utah women’s basketball fell victim to a surging West Virginia Mountaineers team on the road at a troubling 75-46, after the Mountaineers’ superstar JJ Quinerly had a career game with 38 points on 76% shooting.
Utah head coach Gavin Petersen had nothing short of an opinionated post-game press conference after his team suffered its worst loss of the season.
“Sorry you guys had to watch that complete and utter embarrassment. I did not have our team ready to play, and we’ve got to learn from this as we move forward,” he said. “We’ve got to get ready to go back home and play the team down south, and then get ready for the Big 12 Tournament.”
First Half
Utah started the game very slowly despite coming off a big road win over Cincinnati. A rugged defensive showing from the Mountaineers had the Utes struggling to put points on the board.
However, Utah’s defense kept them in the game with the deficit at the end of the first quarter at a manageable 13-5.
Utah appeared to get on track with back-to-back threes from Matyson Wilke and Kennady McQueen. But shortly after Utah cut the West Virginia lead to four, the Mountaineers punched back with a 15-4 run of their own.
An Inês Vieira three-pointer helped limit the damage, but the Utes’ offensive struggles put them in a hole early, as the score going into half was 30-18 in favor of West Virginia.
Second Half
Not much improved for the Utes in the second half. Quinerly got red hot for the Mountaineers, scoring 24 points on her own, and Utah couldn’t find an answer for her defensively.
The offense continued to sputter, as a lousy 31.5% from the field and 28 turnovers had Utah out of the game early.
Looking Ahead
Utah will head home to take on the BYU Cougars for senior night on Saturday, Mar. 1. This will be the Lady Runnin’ Utes’ final regular season game before they head to Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament. Utah will have a lot to play for as they look to sweep their rivals in their final home game of the 2024-25 season.
