Completed Event: Women's Basketball at Eastern Kentucky on March 19, 2026 , Loss , 58, to, 72
Final Score
Women's Basketball
58
at Eastern Kentucky
72
The University of Utah Athletics
Utah Women's Basketball Notes
11/11/2003 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 11, 2003
SALT LAKE CITY -
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COMING UP:
The University of Utah women's basketball team closes out its 2003-04 exhibition season with a 7 p.m. game against Northwest Sports this Wednesday, Nov. 12, in the Huntsman Center.
A QUICK LOOK AT UTAH:
The No. 19 Utah women's basketball team opened the 2003-04 season with a 67-32 victory over Utah Valley State College on Saturday. Sophomore All-America candidate Kim Smith led the Utes with 20 points and eight rebounds. Senior Kelsy Stireman added 11 points, four assists and two steals, while senior Mandie Little finished with 10 points and seven boards. Sophomore Shona Thorburn dished out a team-high five assists, to go with nine points, five rebounds and two steals. Senior Carley Marshall grabbed six rebounds.
Utah's newcomers made their mark, as well. Freshman Heidi Carlsen was 2-4 from three-point range, finishing with seven points. She also had two steals. Senior transfer Kim Hemenway and freshmen Camie Allen and Shauna Brouillard were a combined 0-8 on the night, but each pulled down two boards. Allen also had two steals and one assist.
The Utes shot 39 percent from the field on the game and 80 percent from the free throw line, but managed an uncharacteristicly low 23 percent from three-point range. Utah also out-rebounded the Wolverines 43-31, with 15 coming on the offensive side.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION:
Northwest Sports (1-4), which faces Weber State tonight, fell at Idaho 68-66 on Sunday after the Vandals' Heather Thoelke sank two free throws with 0.6 seconds remaining. With five seconds remaining and the score tied at 66, Thoelke stole a pass underneath the Northwest Sports basket and drew a foul at the other end to head to the free throw line where she would seal the victory for Idaho.
On Saturday, Northwest Sports defeated Washington State 76-66 in Pullman, Wash., as the Cougars were unable to overcome the performance of former BYU star Erin Thorn. Thorn, who saw action in 23 games for the New York Liberty last season, scored a game-high 31 points on 10-25 shooting from the field. Lisa Hansen (16) and Syd Perno (13) also scored in double-digits for Northwest Sports.
SERIES SHORTS:
Last year, Utah defeated Northwest Sports 67-39 in its final exhibition game of the season.
2003-04 AP PRESEASON POLL
Rank School 03-04 Total 03-04 (first-place vote) Record Points Rank1. Connecticut (47) 37-1 1,175 1 2. Duke 35-2 1,117 2 3. Texas 29-6 1,071 5 4. Tennessee 33-5 983 4 5. Kansas State 29-5 981 8 6. Stanford 27-5 844 9 7. Purdue 29-6 833 10 8. Penn State 26-9 830 15 9. LSU 30-4 824 3 10. Texas Tech 29-6 807 7 11. Georgia 21-10 652 19 12. Louisiana Tech 31-3 646 6 13. Minnesota 25-6 589 17 14. North Carolina 28-6 548 12 15. Notre Dame 21-11 405 21 16. Rutgers 21-8 403 23 17. Ohio State 21-10 351 20 18. UC Santa Barbara 27-5 346 18 19. Utah 24-7 314 NR 20. Colorado 24-8 231 NR 21. Oklahoma 19-13 227 NR 22. Auburn 23-11 217 NR 23. Arizona 22-9 199 22 24. TCU 20-14 150 NR 25. Virginia 17-14 133 NR
Others receiving votes: George Washington 71, Vanderbilt 64, Boston College 45, Washington 32, DePaul 30, Michigan State 29, Villanova 28, Virginia Tech 21, Illinois 14, Baylor 12, Southwest Missouri State 8, Arizona State 7, Harvard 6, Miami 6, Cincinnati 5, BYU 4, Louisville 4, Saint Joseph's 4, Creighton 2, New Mexico 2, Arkansas 1, Liberty 1, Montana 1, Pittsburgh 1, Western Michigan 1.
2003-04 ESPN/USA TODAY PRESEASON POLL
Rank School 03-04 03-04 Total (first-place vote) Record Rank Points1. Connecticut 37-1 1 1000 2. Duke 35-2 4 932 3. Texas 29-6 3 896 4. Tennessee 33-5 2 883 5. Kansas State 29-5 10 824 6. Texas Tech 29-6 6 727 7. Stanford 27-5 14 688 8. Penn State 26-9 12 630 9. Purdue 29-6 7 621 10. LSU 30-4 5 605 11. Georgia 21-10 11 550 12. Louisiana Tech 31-3 9 507 13. Minnesota 25-6 13 472 14. North Carolina 28-6 15 467 15. Ohio State 21-10 NR 314 16. Notre Dame 21-11 21 291 17. Rutgers 21-8 NR 276 18. UC Santa Barbara 27-5 22 272 19. Utah 24-7 NR 271 20. Colorado 24-8 19 241 21. Oklahoma 19-13 NR 184 22. Arizona 22-9 NR 153 23. TCU 20-14 NR 150 24. Virginia 17-14 NR 133 25. Auburn 23-11 NR 109
Others receiving votes: George Washington 108; Boston College 94; Villanova 70; Virginia Tech 64; Vanderbilt 57; DePaul 53; South Carolina 48; Washington 44; Mississippi State 29; Arkansas 28; Michigan State 27; Cincinnati 21; Liberty 18; Old Dominion 14; Creighton 11; Houston 11; New Mexico 10; Western Kentucky 10; Chattanooga 9; Southwest Missouri State 9; Clemson 8; Wisconsin-Green Bay 8; North Carolina-Wilmington 7; Saint Joseph's 7; Charlotte 6; Colorado State 6; Arizona State 4; Pepperdine 4; Xavier 4; Iowa 3; Florida State 2; Oregon 2; Toledo 2; UCLA 2; Brigham Young 1; Holy Cross 1; Middle Tennessee 1; Montana 1.
UTES PICKED TO WIN MOUNTAIN WEST:
The Utah women's basketball team was selected as the unanimous favorite by the league's head coaches and select media to win the 2003-04 Mountain West Conference crown. The Utes received all possible first-place votes to repeat as MWC regular-season champions (coaches cannot vote for their own team). Brigham Young picked up the other first-place vote and edged New Mexico by one point to place second. Colorado State followed the Lobos at fourth place, with UNLV, San Diego State, Wyoming and Air Force rounding out the poll.
2003-04 MWC PRESEASON POLL
Rank Team (first-place votes) Points 1. Utah (19) 1522. BYU (1) 120 3. New Mexico 119 4. CSU 98 5. UNLV 85 6. San Diego State 57 7. Wyoming 54 8. Air Force 28
SMITH, THORBURN NAMED PRESEASON ALL-MWC:
Sophomore Kim Smith has been tabbed as the MWC preseason Player of the Year and sophomore Shona Thorburn was also named to the preseason all-conference team. Smith earned Top Returning Player honors following a freshman campaign that saw her named MWC Player and Newcomer of the Year (a conference first), Kodak honorable mention All-America, and Full Court Press and womenscollegehoops.com Freshman All-America honors. She is one of 35 players and just three athletes nationally named to the Wade Trophy preseason watch list.
Thorburn, a second-team all-conference pick last year, ranked sixth in the league in scoring, averaging 14.7 points per game. She led Utah in assists (3.3 per game) and minutes played (36.5) last season.
UTES IN THE POLLS:
Utah has been ranked as high as No. 13 nationally in the preseason polls. SLAM Magazine tabbed the Utes at No. 13, while Lindy's picked Utah as No. 15, and both Street & Smith and Athlon put the Utes at No. 20. The ESPN/USA Today poll, voted on by member coaches of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), as well as the Associated Press poll, ranked Utah at No. 19.
SMITH RECOGNIZED BY ESPN:
Utah sophomore All-America candidate Kim Smith has been honored by espn.com as the sixth-best wing in the nation. Wings are classified as "those players who make that pull-up jumper seem easy and slash to the hoop better than just about anybody else."
Listed ahead of Smith were the nation's leading scorer last season, two of the best players in the SEC, the best player in the Pac-10 and one of the top athletes in the Big Ten (Chandi Jones of Houston, Seimone Augustus of LSU, Tan White of Mississippi State, Nicole Powell of Stanford and Shereka Wright of Purdue).
In addition, Smith is currently featured in a preseason poll regarding women's basketball. In question 3, "Who is the most underrated player in the country," Smith is one of six players listed as choices. The poll can be found at: http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=4
DEFENSIVE DOMINANCE:
Utah led the nation in scoring defense last season, giving up just 50.6 points per game. It was the third time in four years that the Utes had been the top defensive team in the nation. Utah held 13 opponents under 50 points, including three under 40 and one to just 22 points. The Utes only allowed seven opponents to 60 points or more on the year.
What's more, as a team, Utah shot .417 last season, but allowed just nine opponents to reach that mark.
HOME SWEET HOME:
Last year, the Utes went a perfect 13-0 at home. It was the ninth time Utah recorded an undefeated home season in the program's 30 years of existence.
UTES ON THE RADIO:
All of Utah's games this season will be broadcast on KALL-700 AM. Anchoring the broadcast team is KALL-700 AM Sports Director Brad Stone. In his 14th year with the station, Stone is the host of the Ute men's basketball and football game broadcasts. Stone is also the host of the "Redzone," an hour-long show devoted to Ute sports that airs from 9-10 a.m. Monday-Friday.
Utah's 2003-04 road games will be called by Chris Tunis, who served as the president of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association from 1999-2001. Tunis has been selected as Utah Sportscaster of the Year seven times by his peers.
UP NEXT:
The Utes open regular-season play with a 7 p.m. game against Southeast Missouri State in the first round of the WNIT this Friday, Nov. 14, in the Huntsman Center.
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