Utah earned its first victory in nearly three weeks Thursday night in a 71-55 rout of the Colorado Buffaloes. The Utes, clad in pink and black uniforms for Thursday’s Power of Pink Night, laid on the gas and never looked back, controlling the contest wire-to-wire behind senior point guard Dani Rodriguez’s career-high 19 points.
But the blowout victory, the losing streak, the comeback effort after a fourth-quarter collapse against UCLA in the previous game — they were all footnotes as the Utes stepped on the floor in their pink uniforms, a homage to late North Carolina State head coach Kay Yow, who passed away in 2009 after losing her final battle with breast cancer.
Thursday night was bigger than basketball.
“Its really a cool thing because every program, Division-I,II,III does it. Everybody has a Pink Game, you raise money, you raise awareness,” said head coach Lynne Roberts. “I think its an opportunity as a player and as a coach to play for something bigger than the basketball game, bigger than yourself. That’s really what its about. Life is bigger than a basketball game.”
Yow created the Kay Yow Cancer Fund after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 to help raise support and awareness so that those struggling with breast cancer might have access to the best forms of treatment. In partnership with The V Foundation, founded after North Carolina State men’s basketball head coach Jimmy Valvano, who suffered from bone cancer, the Kay Yow Cancer Fund has contributed over $5 million dollars to cancer research.
“The Pink Innitiative started after a bunch of coaches got together on the women’s basketball side and said ‘how can we keep her memory alive,’ and so it became this Play4Kay thing, and now it’s just taken off,” said Roberts.
The Utes were seemingly inspired by the sentiment, putting up their highest scoring output in nearly a month, giving the Huntsman Center crowd plenty to cheer about. Even Salt Lake City mayor Jackie Biskupski was in attendance at the Power of Pink game.
“I’m honored to be a part of this important game, and encourage the people of Salt Lake City to join me in creating a sea of pink for the Utes and pledge to get screened,” said Mayor Biskupski before the game.
Utah is certainly relieved to earn a win following five-straight losses, four of which came in the Huntsman Center where the Utes were previously undefeated. Utah will now travel to Boulder where it will face the Buffs again in the Coors Event Center.
Roberts, who had called the first game of the mini-series a “trap game” for whoever won first matchup because of players’ tendency to relax in the second, seemed less concerned about the situation following Thursday’s win.
“It is potentially a trap, if you win the first game you think ‘ok, we’ve got these guys.’ I don’t think this will be a trap for us because I don’t think we played to our potential tonight,” Roberts said. “I’m pleased with how we won, I’m proud of the fact that we finished the game, but I definitely think there’s things we can improve.”
Utah will tipoff against the Buffs on Super Bowl Sunday at 12 p.m. MST and will be aired live on the Pac-12 Network.
@westinjay