The hope of making it to the big dance is still alive for the U women’s basketball team.
After an upset loss to UNLV earlier in the week, Utah kept its postseason hopes alive as the team earned a come-from-behind 59-54 victory over rival BYU.
“This was an important comeback, especially when you look at the start of the game,” said head coach Elaine Elliott. “It’s like all of the sudden after a loss and a bad start, “Are you not up to the challenge?’ And they obviously were and I’m very proud of them.”
Poor defense by Utah and hot shooting by the Cougars allowed BYU to go on a 15-2 run and put the Utes down 21-8 early in the first half.
“Our overall intensity was low,” said Morgan Warburton, who led the Utes with 18 points. “We should’ve been more motivated starting the game out. Luckily, we pulled it out and got back in the game to win it.”
Despite being down by 13, the Utes never looked panicked as Warburton and a defensive surge helped mount the Utah comeback. The Utes went on a 22-8 run in the last nine minutes of the first half to take a one-point lead at the break.
“There wasn’t any kind of panic,” Elliott said. “Our kids, all along, have been very resilient to being behind. They just tightened it up a bit because really defensively we were pretty bad early.”
Senior leadership played a big part in the Utes’ first-half comeback as improved play from Warburton and Katie King sparked the rest of the Utah team to pick up the intensity.
King and Warburton, who both played all 20 minutes in the first half, scored 19 of the Utes’ 30 points at halftime.
“It’s all about leadership,” said King, who finished with 17 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. “We know that we have to be the leaders on the floor and the team knows that and they come out and follow our lead.”
The Utes’ second-half performance was much better than the first as they never allowed BYU to lead by more than two the entire half.
Despite committing 17 turnovers on the game, shooting 53 percent from the field and compiling a 36-23 rebounding edge allowed Utah to get the win. Turnovers, however, continue to be an issue for the Utes as they head into the final week of regular-season play.
“It’s a problem,” Elliott said. “We are prone to turnovers and it’s not because we get pressed. It’s just a ball-handling problem and we just have to try to win despite it sometimes.”
The win ensures that the Utes stay No. 1 in the Mountain West Conference with a 12-2 record heading into the final weeks of regular-season play.
The Utes will need to win their next two games against New Mexico and TCU if they hope to stay ahead of San Diego State, which is only trailing the Utes by one game with a 11-3 record.
“The next two games we have are going to be really hard,” Warburton said. “They are going to be the same kind of game. It’s not going to be blowout. We’ve got to be ready to play.”
With the win, the Utah women’s basketball team clinched the Deseret Duel title for the U, as Utah now leads the duel 34 to 13.
Lucas Isley Katie King pulled down. a career-high, 16 rebounds and added 17 points in the Utes come from behind win over BYU Saturday.