Michelle Plouffe’s 3-pointer rattled around the rim and bounced to the floor as five crimson Utah jerseys disappeared in a sea of blue and gold clad fans. In just a matter of minutes, the WNIT championship had slipped away from the Utes’ grasp.
Drexel rallied from a 31-24 second-half deficit Saturday and took the lead with under a minute to play. The Dragons held on to defeat Utah 46-43 and win the WNIT title in front of a raucous Philadelphia home crowd.
“They just made one more shot than we did,” said Utes head coach Anthony Levrets on the ESPN 700 postgame show. “They’re a good team in a really tough environment. We ran out of gas. I couldn’t be more proud of our team.”
After losing its seven-point lead thanks to a 14-2 run from Drexel, Utah didn’t crumble. Cheyenne Wilson and Iwalani Rodrigues hit consecutive 3-pointers to put the Utes back ahead 43-42 with just under two minutes to play, but those buckets were the last points the team would score.
Two costly turnovers in the backcourt during the final minute doomed Utah. A giveaway by Michelle Plouffe led to Drexel’s go-ahead bucket, and a backcourt violation with 10 seconds left all but won the game for the Dragons as they made two free throws, and Plouffe’s shot didn’t go at the buzzer.
“It’s not that our kids didn’t give effort,” Levrets said. “[The Dragons] made one more play in their building, and that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
The Utes were in control most of the game, as they held the lead for the first 30 minutes despite not being able to get the ball down low because of Drexel’s tough zone defense. The zone was so effective that Plouffe and Taryn Wicijowski only combined for 18 points after going for 36 in Utah’s previous game. However, the Utes relied on outside shooting to keep them ahead of the Dragons as the second half wound down.
Taking advantage of Utah’s turnovers, Drexel was ultimately able to cut down the nets. The Utes committed nine turnovers and the Dragons scored 11 points off those giveaways. On the other hand, Drexel only gave up one turnover the whole afternoon, and that was the difference in such a close game.
Taylor Wooton and Hollie Mershon led the Dragons. Both combined for 30 points and 16 rebounds and were the catalysts for Drexel’s comeback in the second half. Rodrigues led the Utes with 12 points in her final collegiate game, and Wilson scored eight off the bench. Plouffe hauled in a game-high 14 rebounds despite her subpar shooting day.
It was a bitter end for Utah, which had to play five of its six WNIT games on the road and came so close to winning the program’s first national tournament. Rodrigues, Chelsea Bridgewater and Rachel Messer, all important players on this year’s squad, are graduating and will have to be replaced next season.
After the loss, Levrets reiterated how much he loved this year’s team and how proud he is of the way his players competed the last month of the season.
“I know this is special,” he said. “We traveled almost 7,000 miles in the postseason and played in a lot of tough places and managed to come out with five wins. I’m just really disappointed for our players. They put so much into this. It’s tough for them.”