Kneepkens scores career-high 30 points as Utah women rout Kansas 79-61

SALT LAKE CITY — Nobody could stop Gianna Kneepkens Wednesday night.

The sharpshooting wing had 19 points — including five made 3-pointers — and contributed seven rebounds and six assists all at the halftime break against Kansas. To add to that first half performance, Jenna Johnson had 7 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

The duo were officially on triple-double watch for the second half.

Unfortunately for the pair, neither was able to cross the coveted threshold — only one player, Shona Thorburn, in Utah history has recorded a triple-double — since Utah was up by 20 points late and Gavin Petersen elected to empty the bench as the Utah women pulled away for a 79-61 win.

"I let other people tell me what the stats are during the game," Petersen said. "I kind of just trust my eyes and my mind and what I'm seeing."

Petersen said he didn't realize until late in the game that Kneepkens was nearing a triple-double, but said he'd already made up his mind that she and Johnson were coming out of the game early.

"I looked up and was like, 'Oh, you have 30 points.' And then I look and I'm like, 'Oh, 10 boards, and, oh, eight assists. Whatever you're coming out.' ... I will never — never say never — but stat chasing, nah, that's something I'm not comfortable doing," Petersen said.

Kneepkens narrowly missed out on another assist late in the game when a Maty Wilke 3-point shot caromed off the rim and went out of bounds. Immediately after the shot, Kneepkens was subbed out of the game for the last time.

Asked if that Wilke shot would have forced Petersen to leave Kneepkens in, he was quick to say, "No, I'm taking her out."

A visibly shocked Kneepkens sitting to his right let her true emotions show before nodding in approval for it being the right call. After all, Kneepkens suffered a season-ending injury last year late in a game with Utah up by double digits.

"Sorry, man," he added, looking at Kneepkens. "PTSD."

Kneepkens finished with a career- and team-high 30 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists; and Johnson added 13 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in the win.

To add to the night, Maye Toure recorded her 100th career block, while contributing 14 points and two rebounds before sitting for much of the fourth quarter with four fouls.

But for all the individual successes on the night, it was Utah's (14-5, 5-3 Big 12) hot start to the game that turned the tide and set the momentum. Utah jumped out to a quick 12-0 lead before Kansas got on the board. From there, the home team controlled a 21-5 lead at the end of the first quarter while shooting 67% from the field.

"I thought that they played with tremendous pace, really executed at a high level, and we were not," Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider said. "Didn't provide near enough resistance to throw off any timing whatsoever. In that first quarter, they could have been out there running 5-on-0 offense, and maybe not scored as many points, because they made everything they looked at early."

Despite Utah controlling a comfortable lead for the entirety of the game, thanks to that first-quarter effort, Kansas (12-7, 2-6 Big 12) continued to fight and hit seven 3-pointers to keep the game within reach.

Outside of a 2-point advantage for the Utes in the second quarter, the Jayhawks matched Utah's scoring for the final three quarters. But Utah never relinquished control and kept the Jayhawks at a distance.

The Jayhawks were led in scoring by S'Mya Nichols, who had 26 points and three rebounds, and Laia Conesa supplied an additional 11 points — including three 3-pointers — and eight rebounds.

"I'm really, really proud of our focus the last couple of days in terms of executing what we needed to to start the game, and then that kind of just got us playing freely," Petersen said. "Credit to Kansas, they settled in and they just kept competing and kept being physical and stayed all the way till the bitter end."

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