In what appeared to be a very winnable game, the Utes came out flat against Oregon Sunday afternoon, losing 77-65. The Ducks set the tone early, attacking the basket and reaching a 10 point lead in the first quarter that Utah could never overcome.
The second quarter looked much like the first as the Ducks sliced up Utah’s defense with pick and roll after pick and roll. Through just 15 minutes of game play, Oregon’s leading scorer and rebounder, forward Jillian Alleyne had 18 points on 13 shot attempts. The Ducks lead the Pac-12 in assists per game and they certainly displayed that strength against Utah as they continued to find open shooters the entire game.
It wasn’t until the third quarter that Utah was able to make up some ground on the Ducks, putting together consecutive field goals without an Oregon bucket for the first time in the game. Utah center Emily Potter stepped up big for the Utes, scoring 10 of her 22 points in that quarter while also grabbing four rebounds.
Utah outscored the Ducks 22-20 in the third and looked to be cobbling together a comeback effort, opening the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run. With just over seven minutes to play, Emily Potter sunk a baseline jumper to trim the Oregon lead to eight. Just as quickly as the Utes’ run appeared to breathe some life into the arena, the Ducks rattled off a 9-2 run of their own, deflating the Huntsman. Senior guard Lexi Petersen accounted for seven of those nine points, sinking a pair of jumpers near the top of the key and earning a trip to the charity stripe as well.
While the Utes were able to put together a few late runs, they were never able to extinguish Oregon’s offense, which finished the afternoon shooting 47 percent from the floor and 54 percent from beyond the arc.
Paige Crozon struggled with shooting and was 3-of-13 from the floor. Although she wasn’t contributing much on offense, she found a way to impact the game elsewhere as her team battled back against the Ducks earning five rebounds and a career high three blocked shots as well.
Utah could not contain Alleyne all afternoon, however, as the Pac-12 leading rebounder scored a game high 26 points.
“She’s very tough,” Crozon said. “She crashes the boards extremely hard and she’s really athletic. We needed to get a body on her to try and slow her down, something we didn’t do today.”
Potter also realizes her team did not do enough to earn a win against the Ducks.
“[It was] too little, too late,” Potter said. “It was just a lack of energy. The defensive gameplan was there, we just didn’t excecute on it.”
Utah head coach Lynne Roberts echoed Potter’s statements, citing a lack of energy and focus on the game.
“We started sluggish, just kind of going through the motions and you cannot do that in this conference,” said Roberts.
Utah has now lost three straight overall and two straight in the Huntsman Center, where just one week ago the Utes were proud to call themselves undefeated. With just under a week to prepare for USC, Utah will look to rectify its shortcomings in recent contests.
“We have to move on,” Roberts said. “At this point in the season you have to approach practice and shoot arounds and film sessions with an intensity. You can’t go through the motions and just expect to flip a switch come game time.”
Utah tips off again this Friday at 7 p.m. MST against the visiting Trojans.
@WestinJay