| Gianna Kneepkens | |
| Number: | 5 |
| Team: | Utah Utes |
| League: | Big 12 Conference |
| Position: | Guard |
| Height Ft: | 6 |
| Height In: | 0 |
| Birth Date: | 4 March 2003 |
| High School: | Marshall School (Duluth, Minnesota) |
| College: |
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| Highlights: | |
Gianna Kneepkens (born March 4, 2003) is an American college basketball player for the Utah Utes of the Big 12 Conference.
Gianna Kneepkens was born in Duluth, Minnesota[1] to Donald and Betsy Kneepkens.[2] The youngest of six siblings, Kneepkens grew up playing basketball against her five older brothers.[3] She played for Marshall School in Duluth. As a varsity starter beginning in eighth grade, Kneepkens helped her team to two consecutive Minnesota State Tournament appearances.[4] In her final high school game, Kneepkens scored 67 points, an all-time state record.[4] She was named 2021 Gatorade Minnesota Girls Basketball Player of the Year, joining Paige Bueckers who won the award the year before.[4] During her high school career, Kneepkens scored 3,704 points, which ranked fourth all-time in Minnesota state history at the time. She committed to playing college basketball for Utah.[5]
Kneepkens made her debut for the Utes on November 10, 2021, against Lipscomb University. She later earned a starting role after coming off the bench and scoring 29 points against in-state rival BYU on December 4, 2021.[6] During the season, Kneepkens went on to average 11.8 points per game, shooting 38.4% from the 3-point line and 87.1% from the free-throw line.[2] Kneepkens was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, First Team All-Pac-12, and given Pac-12 All-Freshman honors.[2]
During her sophomore campaign, Kneepkens continued to see success, starting in every game and scoring an average of 15.3 points per game.[2] She helped lead her team to a second consecutive NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament appearance. The Utes advanced to the Sweet 16 where Kneepkens scored a team-high 20 points in a loss to eventual NCAA champion LSU on March 24, 2023.[7] She was again named to the First Team All-Pac-12 and was named a WBCA Coaches' Honorable Mention All-American.[2]
During her junior year (2023-2024), she was named a Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference selection.[8] She started in 8 games before suffering a season-ending foot injury. She averaged 17.8 points per game, shooting a career-high 63.3% from the field and 54.0% from the 3-point line. She also reached 1,000 career points in just 62 games.[9]
Prior to her redshirt junior year (2024-2025), she was named to the Naismith Trophy Women's Player of the Year Watch List.[10] She returned to play November 4, 2024, scoring a team-high 18 points against Southern Utah[11] .
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2021–22| style="text-align:left;"| Utah| 33||25||23.7||44.6||38.4||87.1||4.4||1.2||0.7||0.4||1.1||11.8|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2022–23| style="text-align:left;"| Utah|32||32||28.3||49.8||42.3||83.1||5.2||2.1||0.9||0.5||1.6||15.3|-| style="text-align:left;"| 2023–24| style="text-align:left;"| Utah| 8||8||25.1||63.3||54.0||78.9||5.5||3.9||2.0||0.3||2.3||17.8|- class="sortbottom"|style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career|73||65||25.9||49.1||42.3||84.1||4.8||1.9||0.9||0.5||1.4||14.0|- class="sortbottom"|style="text-align:center;" colspan="14"|Statistics retrieved from Sports-Reference.[12]