Mountaineers’ Comeback Bid Falls Short in 61-56 Loss to Utah

Wednesday, February 18

Morgantown, W.Va.

8:30 p.m.

West Virginia University

16-10,7-6Big 12

Utah

10-16,2-11Big 12

Utah

West Virginia

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

Mountaineers’ Comeback Bid Falls Short in 61-56 Loss to Utah

February 18, 2026 11:44 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia dug itself a deep first-half hole and wasn't able to climb out of it this time in a 61-56 loss to Utah on Wednesday night at Hope Coliseum.

The Utes made their first six shots, scored 18 of the game's first 21 points, and never trailed in snapping their 15-game road losing streak dating back to last year.

Utah, with only one Big 12 victory before tonight's contest, also ended its seven-game losing streak in dealing the Mountaineers a bitter setback.

"The start is one me," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said afterward. "The coach has a couple of primary responsibilities, and the biggest one is making sure that your team is ready to play, and for whatever reason, we just weren't.

"It wasn't just about the shots going in; our team, at this point, is used to stretches of balls not going in, but to be out-rebounded by 10 at the half and (having) a hard time making them miss … you run the risk of this happening when you continuously dig yourself holes. Part of the reason why we dig ourselves holes is we get inconsistent play," Hodge added.

West Virginia, with double-digit comeback victories in two of its last three games, rallied from 15 points down with 14:35 to go to cut the deficit to two, 53-51, on Treysen Eaglestaff's basket with 3:59 remaining.

But two critical offensive grabbed rebounds by former Mountaineer forward James Okonkwo led to Terrance Brown's basket with 2:33 to go.

More missed opportunities, this time near West Virginia's basket, burned nearly a minute and a half off the clock before Don Mchenry's free throws gave the Utes a 57-51 lead.

Prior to that, a missed layup by Jasper Floyd and two point-blank misses by Brenen Lorient on follow-up attempts were indicative of the type of night West Virginia was having.

The Mountaineers missed 18 of their 23 3-point tries and also shot just 46.7% from the free throw line on their 15 attempts.

After Mchenry's two free throws, Huff nailed a deep 3 from the wing to make it a one-possession game with 33 seconds left. Utah left the door open when Brown missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Huff's heavily contested step-back 3 was deflected by Seydou Traore to Brown, who was fouled by Floyd with 10 seconds showing on the clock.

Brown made both before Amir Jenkins quickly scored four seconds later to once again make it a three-point game. Following a West Virginia timeout, Traore was fouled by Jenkins, missed both free throws, but after Floyd grabbed the Traore's second miss, he threw the ball out of bounds trying to hit Huff down the sideline to try a last-second shot attempt.

Brown then iced the game with two more free throws.

Traore led a trio of double-figure Utah scorers with 17 points. Brown and Mchenry contributed 16 points each for the Utes, who improve to 10-16 overall and 2-11 in Big 12 play.

The difference in the game was on the glass where Utah grabbed 12 offensive rebounds and out-boarded the Mountaineers 38 to 28. The Utes' also doubled up West Virginia 14-to-seven at the foul line.

"The way we are constructed this year it's got to be surrounded by the defense, and they started the game 15-3 right away by the first media (timeout)," Hodge said. "You give up 15 in the first four minutes, and then in the next 36 minutes, you give up 45 for the rest of the game."

Huff and Chance Moore contributed 12 points each for West Virginia, which drops to 16-10 overall and 7-6 in Big 12 play.

The Mountaineers return to the road to play at TCU on Saturday in an early evening tilt. The contest will tip off at 5 p.m. and will be televised on Peacock and NBC Sports Network.