After an overtime win against Idaho State, the Utah women’s basketball team couldn’t get it done against Louisville, and fell to last year’s runner-up 60-55.
Despite having four scorers in double-digits, the Utes’ turnovers and an unproductive bench plagued the young team as it dropped to 4-4.
All of Utah’s points came from its starters, led by Kalee Whipple with 16 points. Taryn Wicijowski put in 15, and Janita Badon and Halie Sawyer had 12 and 10, respectively. In contrast, Louisville’s bench contributed 22 points to its winning effort.
After last week’s overtime win against Idaho State, head coach Elaine Elliott said the team was working on getting bench players playing time so they could step in and play in any situation but that they weren’t quite there8212;something that played a big part in the close loss to Louisville.
The Utah starters played the majority of the minutes as Whipple, Wicijowski, Sawyer and Badon all played 37 minutes or more. Rachel Messer saw the most time coming off the bench, as she played nine minutes.
Utah led by six with 10 minutes left to go in the second half, but a 13-1 run by the Cardinals was out of reach for the Utes, as they didn’t get closer than three the rest of the game.
The Utes shot 40 percent from the field compared to Louisville’s 39.2 percent. The Cardinals won the rebounding and turnover battle, as they edged the Utes 36-32 in rebounds and 19-16 in turnovers.
Badon led the Utes’ rebounding effort with eight, and Wicijowski pulled down seven.
Despite having similar statistics and being able to keep the game close, experience was once again the reason the Utes came up short.
“Our kids competed exceptionally hard,” Elliott said. “We could have pulled out the “W.’ We are so far from executing and understanding the things that we need to understand, and we were right there. I am proud of them.”
Louisville was led by Becky Burke, who led all scorers with 20 points. Monique Reid added 11 and eight other players scored for the Cardinals.
After playing five games in nine days, the Utes will get a big break heading into Finals Week, as they don’t play again until Saturday when they host Westminster. The game will begin a five-game home stand for the Utes. They will wrap up their preseason schedule with games against South Dakota State, Oregon, Southern Methodist University and Utah Valley University.