Last night in Kansas, the Utes bent, but they didn’t break.
Utah (24-11, 8-10 Pac-12) blew a 12-point second-half lead against Kansas State and needed overtime to defeat the Wildcats, 54-46. With the win, the Utes will advance to the WNIT championship game Saturday afternoon against Drexel.
After going up 39-31 with 7:34 remaining, the Utes didn’t score a single point the rest of regulation as they allowed Kansas State to storm back and force an extra five minutes of play. But in overtime, Rachel Messer hit a big three-pointer, and her teammates sank free throws to seal the victory for Utah.
“I’m unbelievably proud of our players,” said head coach Anthony Levrets on the ESPN 700 postgame show. “It’s been a tough road, but these kids just keep competing and keep getting enough stops and making enough plays, which is what it’s about this time of year.”
The majority of the plays made by the Utes on Wednesday were once again courtesy of Taryn Wicijowski and Michelle Plouffe. With the Wildcats’ tallest player in the lineup standing just at five feet 11 inches tall, Utah fed the ball down low to the imposing Canadians all game long.
Plouffe scored 24 points to accompany 13 rebounds, and Wicijowski finished with 18 points and a spectacular 17 boards, including eight on the offensive glass. The two bigs combined to shoot 16-for-36 from the field and were an outstanding 8-of-8 from the foul line. No other Ute had more than four points.
“We played pretty well on both ends of the floor,” Wicijowski said. “Iwa [Rodrigues] did a great job on their star player.”
Wicijowski said Utah made a point of using its height advantage over KSU and wanted to get the ball down low from the start. Most of the success around the basket came in the first half, as Kansas State looked lost defensively.
Wicijowski only scored six of her 18 points in the second half and overtime as the Wildcats (19-18, 5-13 Big 10) made adjustments in the locker room to stifle Utah’s star. Wicijowski got frustrated late in the game because of several traveling violations called against her.
“They just did a much better job in the second half of coming and doubling us down there,” Levrets said. “It made it hard for us to play around them.”
Kansas State’s comeback was led by Brittany Chambers, who tallied 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.
“[The Wildcats] do a great job of getting [Chambers] the ball,” Levrets said. “And when she gets it, she’s as good of a one-on-one player as we’ve seen. She’s really good.”
Chambers scored six of the Wildcats’ final seven points to force overtime after Utah missed its final six shots of regulation and committed three turnovers in the last seven minutes of the game.
The Utes stormed out to leads of 7-0 and 21-7 but weren’t able to put Kansas State away until overtime when Rodrigues and Plouffe sank two jumpers and Messer hit a 3-pointer right in front of her red-clad teammates.
“This is a special group of kids,” Levrets said of his team. “They’re not just a bunch of individuals. It’s been a blast to coach them, but it’s unfortunate it has to end.”
Utah’s season will end on Saturday in Philadelphia in the WNIT championship game when it faces the Drexel Dragons, who knocked off Florida on Wednesday. It will be the Utes’ fifth road game of the WNIT.