On Friday night in the Huntsman Center, the Utah Women’s basketball team will face off against Washington for the second time this season.
Utah is coming off a losing weekend in Los Angeles, but point guard Dani Rodriguez says the team still is fighting.
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“Sometimes losing is rough and it takes a toll, but I think our team is determined to finish the season [strong],” Rodriguez said.
Head coach Anthony Levrets said the team cannot afford to look back.
“[We] try and get better every single week and hope it’s good enough by Friday night,” he said. “You just approach it and stay in the moment and only look at what’s in front of you and we do that all the time.”
The first time these two teams met in Seattle, the Huskies won 63-51, but the Utes were without Rodriguez. She thinks the loss was partly due to the fact Utah was tired and more shorthanded than usual. But with her on the floor, Rodriguez says this releases some of the pressure from the other players.
Rodriguez has been averaging just over 10 points a game in the last few weeks and Levrets said it is beneficial to the team when Rodriguez brings up the ball.
“Any time you lose players it’s difficult,” Levrets said. “When you play without your point guard it’s really, really hard. It definitely helps to have Dani on the floor.”
To continue this trend of scoring, Rodriguez is going to work on getting shots up and working on her free throws — something the whole team has been struggling with recently — in addition to attacking the basket every chance she gets.
“[I need to continue] being more aggressive offensively, shooting the ball when I’m open, driving to the basket when there’s an open lane,” Rodriguez said. “Not being content with just running the offense.”
Rodriguez and Levrets both agree that one of the keys to the game will be how they defend Washington’s top two scorers, Kelsey Plum and Jazmine Davis, who are both averaging over 15 points per game.
“Our defense [needs to hold up], we have to bring some our best defense of the year,” Rodriguez said. “Our shots need to fall in, we need to come out and be competitive and ready to play.”
Levrets said the team needs to focus on taking away easy baskets that Plum and Davis will hit. The team also needs to take away their tendency to go to their left hand, and make the entire Washington squad, especially their big players, take contested three pointers.
“We have to recognize how they score, what they do the best, and try to take that away,” Levrets said.
While they have to find ways to halt the Huskies offense, Levrets mentions they also need to look for mismatches.
“We have some advantages against them in certain matchups,” Levrets said. “And we’ll really work on trying to exploit the matchups for us offensively on the floor to be able to score enough to be able to beat them and I feel like we can defend them well.”
With a four-game home stand, the team is more at ease without the worry of having to catch the next flight.
“We’re really excited to play four straight home games,” Rodriguez said.
@kbrenneisen