On Monday night the University of Utah women’s basketball team (5-1) walked away with a 71-41 victory over UT Arlington to give it its fourth consecutive win.
Utah started off strong with a bucket by Erika Bean, ten seconds into the first quarter. The Lady Mavericks went scoreless for the first five minutes of the game before adding two points from Rebekah Vandijk.
Utah head coach Lynne Roberts was pleased with the competition from each team and with the overall outcome of the game. She felt that Utah played well against a tough opponent and that the success had to be earned.
“I think we took them out of everything that they like to do and are good at,” Roberts said. “They are a good team and they will have a good season, we just threw them off tonight.”
A critical steal early on from Tori Williams helped Utah get in rhythm, but it was turnovers that plagued the first half. UT Arlington had 11 and Utah compiled 10 turnovers. The first quarter came to a close with two successful free throws shot from Bean.
In the second quarter, Kiana Moore stole the ball and racked up an assist as she passed the ball to Megan Jacobs for the basket to further pad the Utes’ lead by almost 20 points. Huff contributed four additional points to give Utah a 36-17 lead at halftime.
The Utes came out of the break with energy as Huff, Emily Potter and Clark put the ball through the net. Huff showed off her skills with a number of baskets and rebounds to help extend Utah’s margin late in the game.
The players who came off the bench stepped up in positive ways. Roberts expressed gratitude towards the amount of depth that the bench has and in their ability to step up and help the team out when needed.
“We didn’t have our best shooting night,” Roberts said. “A lot of [3-pointers] that we have been hitting, we weren’t making, and we have started to rely on that this season.”
Moore was injured during the game which forced her to exit. That made for a rough start to the fourth quarter, but the Utes pushed through and continued to run up the score as they dominated their way to the win.
A highlight from the fourth quarter came off a rebound from Potter who then had a long pass to Williams, who passed the ball to Daneesha Provo to give the team another bucket thanks to a well-crafted play.
Potter was the leading scorer on the night with 16 points after shooting 6-of-9 from the field and 4-of-6 from the free throw line. Tilar Clark followed behind her having shot 5-of-8 from the field and 1-for-4 from deep for six points.
Utah will be back in action at the Huntsman Center on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 2:30 p.m. to take on Saint Mary’s.
@Casey_Overfield
