The U women’s basketball team will play for the possibility of a fourth straight victory Wednesday night as it welcomes the Weber State Wildcats to the Huntsman Center. The Utes are playing their third game of a four-game home stand, as they have already defeated Oregon State and Loyola Marymount. In their most recent victory over the Lions, senior forward Kim Smith scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Sophomore forward Jessica Perry chipped in 12 points and was one rebound short of a double-double, as she finished with nine boards. Utah showed flashes of dominance at the beginning of both periods but would slowly give way after building significant leads. After jumping to a 17-2 lead with 13:06 left in the first half, the Utes allowed Loyola Marymount to close it down to 29-21 at the half. The same thing happened in the second half. After building a 43-25 advantage with 13:32 left to play, Utah permitted the Lions to bring the game to within eight points (48-40) before pulling away and beating the Lions 63-47.
“We had our pushes and our ebbs and our flows, and we’ll work through those,” Utah head coach Elaine Elliott said. “What we’re after is to work toward a better consistency and toward better execution. I feel that we can become better and have a lot ahead of us.”
If consistency is what they’re working toward, the other players have a perfect example in Smith. She has scored 20 or more points in four of their five regular season games this season and is averaging 20.6 points and eight rebounds per game over that stretch.
“I’m just doing whatever it takes to help our team win,” Smith said of her performance.
Weber State is coming off a win of its own against Loyola Marymount, where Chelsey Warburton came off the bench to lead the Wildcats with 13 points in a 65-55 victory at the Dee Events Center.
Warburton is the older sister of the Ute freshman guard Morgan Warburton and is averaging 9.8 points per game for the Wildcats.
Sophomores Tashina Taylor and Sara Tuomi have been the top two Weber State performers for the 3-2 Wildcats. Taylor is averaging 11.8 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, while Tuomi has added an average of 10.6 points and nine rebounds per game.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Huntsman Center.