This past weekend, the University of Utah women’s basketball team took two losses against Arizona and Arizona State.
Utah started off their weekend against the Arizona Wildcats on Friday, Feb. 15. In January, the Utes took down the Wildcats 80-64 at the Huntsman Center. This game was a turn around for the Utes, being held to only shooting 30 percent from the floor and the Utes took a devastating 55-66 loss to start off their weekend.
“I thought defensively we did what we needed to do to win, but offensively we just couldn’t make shots,” said head coach Lynne Roberts. “The consistency that has been there all season wasn’t there today. It is hard to win on the road shooting 30 percent, it is impossible. We didn’t turn it over, we rebounded well and I thought we got good looks, we just didn’t have it offensively. We didn’t make shots.”
Despite the team as a whole not taking down the shots, freshman Dre’Una Edwards led the Utes with 21 points along with 10 rebounds to achieve her second double-double of the season. Following Edwards was freshman Andrea Torres with nine points.
After a tough loss against Arizona, the Utes had little time to recover for their next game against the Arizona State Sun Devils on Sunday, Feb. 17. Utah had three double-digit scorers during the Arizona State game. Senior Megan Huff led the Utes with 15 points, nine rebounds and set a career high of seven assists. Following behind was redshirt freshman Dru Gylten with 12 points and junior Kiana Moore with 10 points.
Utah started off the game Sunday afternoon with a 7-0 lead and continued to keep that lead as they ended the first quarter shooting 47 percent. When half time hit, the Utes were up with a 14-point advantage at 34-20. Arizona State tried to come back in the third but the Utes continued to take control of the ball, with freshman guard Gylten creating a 13-point lead. At the end of the third, the Utes finished 55-38.
The Sun Devils did not give in coming into the fourth quarter. Arizona State went on a 20-0 run and the Utes only had one shot made by Andrea Torres during the fourth. The Arizona Sun Devils came back to take a 60-58 win against the Utes.
The Utes will return back to the Huntsman Center this weekend, hoping to get back on track with games against Washington and Washington State. Utah finished off the weekend 18-7 overall and 7-7 in Pac-12 play. The Utes have defeated both Washington State and Washington earlier this season and are hoping to come back once more this coming weekend.