Round two of Mountain West Conference play starts Sunday afternoon for the Utes as they take on the Wyoming Cowgirls. Utah had its way last time against Wyoming, beating the inexperienced Cowgirls 70-52 in the conference opener. However, Wyoming has improved since the two last met and have won three of its past four games.
The first set of conference games couldn’t have gone much better for the Utes. Not only did Utah go 8-0 in the first half of the games, but it has a two-game lead over No. 2 San Diego State. The first-half sweep has put the Utes in a position to possibly repeat as conference champions.
“Every one of those wins was big,” said head coach Elaine Elliott. “You hope you don’t let one slip at home, and we managed to do that. And we got a couple of those road breakthroughs, too. But having said that, we still got work to do with everybody the second time around.”
One of the bigger changes that comes during the second half of MWC play is teams’ strategies in regards to game preparations. Now that everyone has seen each other once and has that game film to draw back on, Elliott said it becomes more of a chess match between coaches regarding strategies.
“Once you have your own game to look at and study, then you refine choices you might have made that you liked then but not now,” Elliott said. “Nobody becomes a new team the second time around. Everybody now has a chance to refine and take parts of what they do, and see what they like better now that they have actually gone against a team.”
Although the Utes have to be happy with the results of the first eight games, the team did have a few bumps along the way. The past three games, against BYU, New Mexico and TCU, were all hard-fought games. The second half doesn’t figure to be any easier either, now that every team is fully seasoned.
“We’re going to have to come out harder now,” said forward Kalee Whipple. “Each team gets better in the second half of the conference.”
Wyoming is an example of just how much a team can improve over the course of the conference season. The Cowgirls were a young team at the start of the season. Three of their top four scorers this year are underclassmen. The youth showed at the beginning of conference play, as Wyoming dropped its first four conference games. Things have started to pick up for the Cowgirls, however. They upset New Mexico 52-50, which gave them their third win in conference play.
Utah could take advantage of Wyoming on the boards. Utah has been strong at rebounding all year, leading the conference with a 10.1 rebounding margin per game. Wyoming, meanwhile, is dead last in rebounding margin in conference at negative-8.4.
Tip-off is set for Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
Nick AndrewAfter comeback wins over New Mexico and TCU, Halie Sawyer and the Utes look to earn a home win over Wyoming on Sunday to extend their winning streak to 12 games.