Get out the history books — some revisions are in order.
After downing TCU on Wednesday night, the U women’s basketball team secured its place in Utah basketball history with an unprecedented 19th-straight win. The No. 16 Utes broke the previous record of 18 consecutive victories set in 1977. With the 68-53 win, the Utes clinched at least a share of the Mountain West Conference title.
“It’s good to know that maybe in 10 years, people will ask, ‘Were you on that team that won 19 in a row?'” said Morgan Warburton, who had 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting. “You know, it’s a hard thing to do. You never know when (the record will be broken again).”
The Utes improved to 13-0 in league play while all other MWC teams have at least three losses. With three games remaining on the schedule, the Utes need to win just one of their final three games to guarantee an outright title.
The game against the Horned Frogs got off to a bit of a slow start. It took the Utes 3:10 to score their first point.
“We kind of came out a little lackadaisical, I thought, myself included,” Warburton said. “We just had to get it going and we got a rhythm and things started going our way.”
Once the Utes got on the board, they never looked back.
Utah was up 35-25 at halftime. TCU pulled within five early in the second half, but never got any closer than that.
Utah’s “three-headed monster” — as Utah head coach Elaine Elliott referred to Warburton, Kalee Whipple and Leilani Mitchell after the game — had another outstanding showing, but the surprise of the night was the contributions of senior Jessica Perry, who scored 14 points and pulled down six rebounds in the first 20 minutes. Perry was unable to best her season-high of 15 points, though, as she went scoreless in the second half.
Whipple finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and went 3-of-4 from 3-point range in the first half.
“Lei is all that she is (touted to be) and Morgan is all that she’s said to be as a first-team all-conference (player), so Kalee Whipple is that good,” Elliott said. “It’s almost like there won’t be enough room on the (all-MWC) first team for them because they are all that good.”
Guarded by the crafty Adrianne Ross for much of the game, Warburton was held to four points in the first half, but she came on strong in the second half, scoring 15 in the final 20 minutes. Mitchell finished with 14 points and seven assists.
Elliott now holds claim to the longest Utah winning streak, beating out her mentor, Fern Gardner.
“All you should do at this point in time is enjoy it,” Elliott said. “You shouldn’t overanalyze it. You shouldn’t think too much of yourself about it. You shouldn’t get all puffed up on it. You should just enjoy it while it’s happening, keep in it perspective. In retrospect, it will mean quite a bit.”
Jarad ReddekoppScoring 19 points, Morgan Warburton led the team to a win over TCU.