Kim Smith will once again reach for the record books Saturday afternoon, as the 25th-ranked U women’s basketball team takes on the Air Force Falcons at Clune Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Smith added another record to her long list of accolades Wednesday night when she scored point number 2,062 of her career, eclipsing BYU’s Erin Thorn to become the Mountain West Conference all-time leader in career scoring.
On Saturday, Smith will need to add 18 points to her career total of 2,070 to bypass Julie Krommenhoek (1994-1998) as the record holder for career scoring at the U.
As Smith hauls in the records, the Utes (18-5, 9-3 MWC) have been on fire, especially since dropping their first two conference games to New Mexico and BYU in early January.
Since that stint, they’ve won nine of their last 10 contests, and they’re not showing any signs of slowing down.
They’ve flattened their last five opponents by an average of 19.2 points per game (including No. 19 BYU and No. 20 New Mexico), and Smith has won the last two MWC Player of the Week awards.
With all the energy the Utes will bring into this game, it’s not likely that much will change from the last time these teams met up, when Utah hit 62.5 percent of their shots (30-48) en route to pulverizing the Falcons 90-45 at the Huntsman Center a month ago.
While Utah is coming into this matchup fueled with their recent success, Air Force (12-11, 3-9 MWC) has lost eight of its last ten, including Wednesday night’s 84-79 loss to TCU.
The Falcons had five different players score in double figures, led by sophomore Jamie Davis, who scored 14 points.
However, no Falcon averages more than 10 points per game. Alecia Steele leads the team, averaging 9.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
The Utes have never lost to Air Force, having won all 21 games in the series by an average of more than 31 points.
Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.