After blowing a 17-point second-half lead, getting outscored 9-2 in the final 2:09 of regulation and getting outhustled by an opponent down to six available players by the last five minutes of play, the U women’s basketball team finally dropped an 87-77 decision to No. 23-ranked Colorado State in triple overtime Saturday.
Needless to say, the Utes couldn’t help but feel like they’d let one get away.
“We didn’t win it on the first two or three chances we had, and we were spent in the third overtime,” said U coach Elaine Elliott. “[The Rams] have better depth, and a lot of players who can play, so we needed to put them away when we were given the chance.”
After CSU (13-3, 2-0 MWC) made just 1-of-12 shots to open the second half, the Utes (8-6, 1-1) went on a 13-2 run to take a 43-26 lead.
But after that, little else went right for Utah. Colorado State used a 10-1 run of its own to pull to within 44-36, then, in the final 129 seconds of the second half, erased a 56-49 deficit, capping the comeback when senior guard Angie Gorton, who had a game high 24 points (on 10-of-14 shooting) hit a layup with 5.7 seconds to go, sending the contest into OT.
“We went down, but we stayed with it, just trying to get a stop here, a stop there,” said CSU senior forward Ashley Augspurger, who had 14 points and 9 rebounds. “We just crawled back in it.”
Meanwhile, the Utes’ poor shooting (28.2 percent) and ballhandling (6 assists, 17 turnovers), precluded them from getting any kind of rhythm back, and only a Katherine McColl putback of a missed 3-pointer by Lana Sitterud with 1.9 seconds to go in the first extra session enabled the U to prolong the game.
Amazingly, it was the senior power forward McColl, who came in averaging just 5.0 ppg, who kept the Utes going. She had 11 of her 16 points for the game in the overtime periods (including 7 of the team’s 10 in the second OT), and added 16 rebounds.
“I just realized that I had a smaller girl on me, so I should try to take advantage,” McColl said.
However, good as McColl was for the U down the stretch, Gorton was even better for the Rams. She nailed the tying free throws with 47.7 seconds left in the second overtime, then added 5 of CSU’s 13 points in the final stanza.
“Angie was playing good, she was hitting good, so why not put the ball in her hands?” Augspurger said.
Katie Borton added 17 points for a Colorado State team that, after making just 31.7 percent of its field goals in regulation, hit for 55 percent in the extra periods. Also, despite fouling out three of the nine players it dressed for the game in the second OT, CSU held Utah to just 3 points on 1-of-7 shooting in the fifth period.
The Utes, meanwhile, were led by senior guard Erin Gibbons, who had 24 points and 9 rebounds. Senior center Lauren Beckman added 13 points and a game-high 18 boards, but shot just 1-of-14 from the floor.
“I can live with anything where we gave everything that we had,” Elliott said. “I can’t be upset because we didn’t hit our free throws or because Beck didn’t have a great night. It hurts?and it should hurt?but I’m quite proud of the great effort.”