The Utes dropped their first conference road game Friday night against No. 9 Stanford, 72-52. Utah hung close with the Cardinal through two quarters, trailing 30-28 at the half. But Stanford used its homecourt advantage in the third period to pull away from Utah, opening the quarter on a 14-4 run, outscoring the Utes 25-12 in the period.
Stanford led a balanced attack against the Utes, with 14 players earning floor time, and nine players scoring. Brittany McPhee and Lili Thompson led the way for Stanford, each with 16 points.
Paige Crozon led all Utah scorers with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-5 from deep following a tough outing against Washington last Monday at the Huntsman Center. Friday’s performance was Crozon’s eighth double-digit scoring game in her last nine appearances and the Saskatchewan native also chipped in five rebounds.
Stanford clearly had a game plan for star center Emily Potter, and was successful in squelching the Utes’ leading scorer, holding her to just nine points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field. Despite a tough time scoring the ball, Potter was able to distribute from the post, equaling a career high three assists on the game.
Utah was in for a test against arguably the nation’s best defense. Coming into the matchup, Stanford was holding opponents to 30 percent shooting from the floor —good enough for the best field goal percentage defense in the country. While Utah held the edge over the Cardinal in the first half, shooting 45.8 percent from the floor, the Stanford dug in on defense and held Utah to a stifling 28.6 percent in the second.
While Potter was able to successfully draw defense and move the ball to the perimeter, helping Utah shoot an efficient 50 percent from behind the three-point line, it was not enough for the Utes to hang with the nation’s ninth best team.
Utah sophomore guard Devri Owens earned a career high six points in the contest as Utah head coach Lynne Roberts searched the roster for scoring.
Even after dropping its first game of a four game road trip, Utah sits in fifth place in the Pac-12 with a 10-4 record on the season, 2-1 in conference play. With their next win the Utes will have earned two more victories than they totaled all of last season.
The road was not kind to Utah last season, as the Utes went 0-11 away from the Huntsman Center in 2014-2015. While Roberts isn’t focused on the win-loss columns this season, road performances will be a testament to the progress the team has made in Roberts’ first season.
The Utes will try and get their road record back to .500 with a win against Cal this Sunday. Tipoff will be at 3 p.m. MST.
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