Utah basketball earns gritty road win over West Virginia

Utah dug in its heels, laced up its chin-strap and gritted its teeth to earn a hard-fought 61-56 victory over West Virginia on Wednesday night.

The Runnin' Utes (10-16, 2-11 Big 12) snapped their 15-game road losing streak by beating the Mountaineers (16-10, 7-6 Big 12) at their own game, never shying away to get down and dirty in order to come away from Hope Coliseum with a victory.

That said, it wasn't much of an offensive showcase in Morgantown. Neither team shot better than 42% from the field and went a combined 10-for-39 from 3-point land, placing an emphasis on getting stops and capitalizing off the rare opportunities that presented themselves.

Here's how Utah earned its second Big 12 win of the season.

Fending Off The Comeback Kids

Red-hot start or not, Utah knew entering Wednesday's contest that it would have to compete for a full 40 minutes if it wanted to leave Morgantown with its first road win in over a year.

West Virginia developed a reputation as the Big 12's "comeback kids" over the past couple of weeks with second-half rallies against Cincinnati and UCF, both of which occurred on the road and required the Mountaineers to overcome 14-point deficits.

As the Mountaineers dug themselves out of a 15-point hole on Wednesday, it looked like the Utes were going to be West Virginia's next victim. The connectivity the Utes played with on the offense end became stagnant, and the shots that fell in the first half didn't drop as frequently after halftime as a result. It seemed like West Virginia was more comfortable grinding out an ugly win if need be, considering that would've been more fitting for the Mountaineers than the Utes based on each team's makeup and identities.

Down the stretch of regulation, though, it was Utah coming up with the big defensive stops and timely scores.

After Brown converted a clutch layup, ending Utah's 3-minute-long scoring drought and making it 55-51 with 2 minutes and 33 seconds left, Seydou Traore recovered a loose ball following a solid defensive possession for Utah and advanced the ball up the floor to McHenry, who got fouled on a drive to the rim.

Traore stepped up on the defensive end moments later, getting hand on a 3-point attempt from Honor Huff to prevent the Mountaineers from tying the game in the final 30 seconds. Brown ended the possession with a tough rebound before icing the game with two clutch free throws.

Utah missed 12 of its last 16 field goal attempts, though holding West Virginia to two for its last eight proved to be the difference maker. The Mountaineers scored just twice over the final 4 minutes of regulation, during which they committed a couple of costly turnovers.

Terrence Brown Controlling The Tempo

Terrence Brown has spent a good majority of the season showing off his ability to score in a variety of ways.

On Wednesday, the other aspects of the 6-foot-3 guard's game were the reasons why Utah remained in control throughout.

Brown didn't exactly shoot the lights out, though the junior managed to set up his teammates by collapsing the defense, freeing up space on the perimeter for his teammates to handle the rest. He also came up big on the boards with a season-high eight rebounds, including one on the offensive glass that he turned into a second-chance bucket as West Virginia closed the gap, and made his presence felt defensively with sound on-ball pressure and timely charge in the second half.

Utes Get Off On The Right Foot

A major reason why Jensen's group has endured its share of letdowns on the road this season is slow starts. In its previous eight true road games, Utah led at the halftime break once (at Washington in December). More often than not, the Utes' spend the second half trying to climb out of the hole they dug themselves into during the first 20 minutes of play.

Needless to say, Wednesday was a refreshing change of pace for Jensen and company.

Fueled by a balanced scoring attack, Utah scored nine unanswered points out of the gate and jumped out to a 18-3 lead after all five starters combined to make eight of their first 12 field goals.

It helped that West Virginia couldn't find a rhythm offensively, though Utah deserved some credit for its sound defense and opportunistic tendencies early on. In addition to scoring seven of their first 18 points off turnovers, the Utes showed a concerted effort to crash the glass on both ends, helping them dictate the pace against one of the better defensive teams in the Big 12.

Turnovers, missed shots and official reviews bogged down Utah's pace as the first half progressed, though the Utes did enough to stymie Huff and company on the other end of the floor and take a 10-point lead into the locker room.

Fending Off The Comeback Kids

Terrence Brown Controlling The Tempo

Utes Get Off On The Right Foot

MORE UTAH NEWS & ANALYSIS