SALT LAKE CITY ā Gavin Petersen had seen enough.
With 4:15 left in the third quarter, Petersen felt his team had been wronged by a missed call by the refs (and from multiple previous calls all night). In an animated showing of frustration, Petersen waved his hands to get the refs’ attention before a long conversation during a media timeout.
Whatever the message, it worked. On the next Utah possession out of the timeout, Utah’s Lani White drove to the rim and the refs called a shooting foul ā a foul that sent the Utes to the line for the first time all game with 3:43 left in the third quarter.
In short order, the Utes were on the line again in back-to-back possessions, and then a fourth foul was called on Baylor on the offensive end of the floor.
“I love officials who communicate with me,” Petersen said. “So as long as you communicate with me and the ones that admit, like, ‘Yeah, I might have got that wrong. That was a close one,’ you gain more respect with me, because you’re open and honest. … I’m not going to worry too much about them (the refs), but I will fight for (my team).
Within those first few minutes of the timeout, Utah erased a one-time 16-point lead and cut the deficit to single digits as the team started to piece an offense together.
But No. 18 Baylor was ultimately too much ā especially the team’s length and defensive presence ā as the team pulled away in the final frame in a a 61-45 win on Utah’s home court.
It was one of those nights where Utah couldn’t get into a consistent rhythm on the offensive side of the ball ā the team shot 26% from the floor ā and got sped up inside the post to miss easy layups as a result of Baylor’s length.
“I think their physicality, their length sort of disrupted us a little bit offensively,” Utah forward Chyra Evans said. “And thenbecause we were disrupted, we just sort of panicked, and then it went into just like quick shots. But I would say it was probably the length and athleticism that just sped us up.”
“I would have to say it probably played a big part in it,” Petersen added. “So it’s just something we’ve got to get better at, focus on, and next time we get the opportunity, let’s be a little bit more intentional with those finishes.”
Utah (13-5, 4-2 Big 12) had few answers on the night and managed just three made 3-pointers on 25 attempts in what is usually an otherwise free-flowing offense that is made more efficient when the deep shots fall.
But that was part of the plan from a Baylor (16-3, 5-1 Big 12) defense who leads the Power Four in 3-point defense at 23.4% per game: trade 2-point baskets for momentum-building 3-pointers.
“I just think any team like Utah that’s pretty analytically driven, you’ve got to make them beat you 2 by 2 by 2,” Baylor coach Nicki Collen said. “If they get rhythm, they get momentum from the three ball.”
Baylor had its own shooting slump on the night ā including a five-minute period without a bucket ā but finished the game shooting 39% from the floor and making nine 3-pointers to put distance on the Utes.
The Bears were led in scoring by Taliah Scott, who had 14 points, three assists and two rebounds in the win. Darianna Littlepage-Buggs added 11 points and Jana Van Gytenbeek finished with 10 points.
White, who had 9 first-half points, had a team-high 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting, eight rebounds and three assists in the loss. Evans added to the effort with a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds, helping Utah outrebound Baylor 45-41 on the night.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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