Seydou Traore understandably earned praise from his head coach several times after Utah beat West Virginia 61-56 at Hope Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Wednesday night.
Traore led the defensive effort of slowing down the Mountaineers’ top scorer, Honor Huff, and twice blocked 3-point attempts from Huff in the second half, helping the Runnin’ Utes earn their first road win of the season and their first since Jan. 15, 2025.
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The most critical block came with 13 seconds remaining. Moments after Huff hit a 3-pointer to make it a 57-54 game and Terrence Brown missed the front end of a 1-and-1, West Virginia had a chance to tie the game, but Traore blocked Huff’s attempt, squashing the Mountaineers’ last hope.
“Seydou did a great job, I think, on Huff, especially at the end,” Utah coach Alex Jensen told reporters in his postgame press conference.
Traore, in turn, fueled that defensive effort into a solid all-around night, as he scored a team-high 17 points and added six rebounds, three steals and two assists with those two blocks to snap a seven-game losing streak for Utah (10-16, 2-11 Big 12).
Traore also was the only Ute to shoot over .500 from 3-point range, as he was 3 of 4.
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It all started with helping hold Huff to 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting.
“He’s one of those guys who could score a lot of points in a little amount of time. We started Seydou on him and he did a great job,” Jensen said. “And it’s funny how it’s kind of a point I’ve been making to our guys, how you focus on the defensive part of it. Which Seydou, he took the challenge of guarding Huff, and it’s amazing how it makes your offensive game easy.”
Jensen credited his entire team for helping defensively again Huff and the Mountaineers.
“There was a couple (times) late in the game where James (Okonkwo) did a great job, like he was aware of him coming off that pick, and we were a little bit late, and he kind of jumped out there for a second,” Jensen said. “So, great job by Seydou. I think collectively as a group, we were aware of him for most of the night and did a good job.”
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Defense was just one part of a winning formula for a game that could pay dividends for the Utes as they wrap up their first season under Jensen.
Rebounding has often been a point of emphasis with Jensen and his staff, and the Utes outrebounded the Mountaineers 38-28, including 12-7 on the offensive glass. That led to Utah owning a 9-4 edge in second-chance points.
Josh Hayes came off the bench and had seven rebounds, including five on the offensive end, while Brown led the Utes with eight, including six on defense. Okonkwo, meanwhile, added five boards, including three on the offensive end.
“I think Josh Hayes was great off the bench, and even Terrence, he ended up with eight. So that was great,” Jensen said. “Right from the start, he had two big rebounds in the first half, and then, you know, even those loose balls at the end were huge.
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“Collectively, we did a good job rebounding. It’s been a focal point because we give up size in a lot of these games.”
Points came at a premium Wednesday night, as both teams struggled to build offensive rhythm — Utah shot 40.4% and West Virginia 42.3% from the field.
Even the free-throw line was a struggle, as the Utes went 14 of 21 from the line, better than West Virginia’s 7 of 15.
Amidst those offensive woes, though, Jensen saw positives in what guards Brown (16 points, three assists) and Don McHenry (16 points, one assist) were able to accomplish.
“I think TB did a good job keeping his composure, controlling the tempo,” Jensen said.
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McHenry scored seven of his points during an early-game stretch where Utah made its first six shots from the field and got out to an 18-3 lead.
“We need Don to win, and the point I’ve tried to ask Don to do is be aggressive,” Jensen said.
In the second half, Utah again started quickly, when Brown and McHenry combined for nine of the Utes’ first 12 points of the half as Utah moved its lead to a game-high 15 points.
Then late in the game, after West Virginia had climbed to within two points, Utah’s guard duo again came up big offensively.
Brown’s reverse layup with 2:32 to play snapped a 7-0 run and made the score 55-51.
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Brown and McHenry combined to score Utah’s final 10 points, as they held off West Virginia just three days after blowing a five-point lead with under two minutes to play as the Bearcats beat the Utes 69-65.
Jensen has hammered home that point with his team all year to be aggressive, and it reflected in the way Utah started the game.
“If we don’t start well, it’s hard for us to come back, especially on the road, but the start was really good,” he said.
West Virginia coach Ross Hodge credited Utah with taking the fight to his team from the tip.
“I’m going to give Coach Jensen and his team all the credit in the world,” Hodge said. “They’ve been close, they’ve been in these situations before and they’ve just ended up on the wrong side of it.
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“… They started the game with force, pace and shot-making, and we just didn’t match that.”
Following a two-game road trip, the Utes return home to face UCF on Saturday (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+). The Knights (18-7, 7-6 Big 12) come into the contest squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble and most recently beat TCU to snap a three-game losing streak.
While the Utes still find themselves six games under .500 and are out of the running to break their NCAA Tournament drought — barring a run to the Big 12 tournament title next month — Wednesday’s contest had positives Utah can build off of.
“I tell them, we’re good enough. And again, the whole goal is to get better individually and collectively,” Jensen said in his postgame 700 AM interview. “We are better than our record, and I think it kind of showed tonight.”
Utah head coach Alex Jensen calls out to his players during an NCAA basketball game against Houston held at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
