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
1/16/2004 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 16, 2004
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
COMING UP:
The Utah women's basketball team (11-4, 1-0) travel to Fort Collins, Colo. to face Colorado State (10-4, 1-0) at noon this Saturday, Jan. 17. The game will be telecast live on Fox Sports Rocky Mountain. The Satellite information is as follows: C Band, Galaxy 3C, TR. 23, Downlink: 4160 H. The game will also be broadcast live on KALL-700 AM in Salt Lake City and on the Internet at www.utahutes.com.
A QUICK LOOK AT UTAH:
Junior Lana Sitterud scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds as the Utes opened Mountain West Conference play with a 57-39 win over Wyoming Thursday night. Utah shot 40 percent from the field on the game, while Wyoming made just 30 percent of its shots. Utah also out-rebounded the Cowgirls 35-27 and forced 19 Wyoming turnovers. Senior Kelsy Stireman added 12 points, five rebounds and four assists. For just the third time in her career, sophomore All-America candidate Kim Smith was held under 10 points. She finished with three points, five rebounds and two steals.
On the season, Utah is led by Smith, who averages 15.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, and sophomore Shona Thorburn, who adds 12.1 points, 5.6 boards and 3.9 assists. The Utes are outscoring opponents 67.4 to 55.5 and out-rebounding them 34.3 to 30.1. As a team, Utah is shooting 46 percent from the field and 41 percent from downtown on the year.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION:
Colorado State rallied from a 13-point deficit to defeat Brigham Young in the MWC opener for both teams, 54-52, on Thursday night. BYU topped the Rams in shooting (44 percent to 30 percent), rebounding (37 to 28) and assists (14 to 5), but Colorado State made 23-of-29 free throws in the game, while the Cougars were just 1-of-2 from the charity stripe. Sophomore Melissa Dennett scored 1 points and tied her career high with 11 rebounds, while sophomore Vanessa Espinoza had a team-high 12 points and senior Jasai Ferrucho chipped in 10 points, three assists and three steals.
The Rams have four players -- Dennett (12.5), Lindsay Thomas (12.2), Joy Jenkins (12.1) and Espinoza (12.1) -- averaging 12 or more points per game. Thomas averages a team-high 7.6 rebounds, while Ferrucho dishes out 4.0 assists per game. CSU is shooting 43 percent from the field on the season and averages 66.9 points per game.
SERIES SHORTS:
Utah leads the all-time series with the Rams 44-13. The last time the two teams met, on Feb. 13, 2003, Utah fell 56-44 in Fort Collins. The Utes are 25-4 at home, 18-8 away and 1-1 at a neutral site vs. Colorado State.
MWC LEADERS:
As a team, the Utes rank in the top half of nearly every statistical category. Utah leads the conference in field goal percentage (.463), three-point field goal percentage (.412), rebounding defense (30.1), assists (15.5) and three-point field goal average (7.1), and ranks second in scoring (67.4), scoring defense (55.5), assists (15.1) and assist/turnover ratio (1.1), and third in scoring margin (+11.9), rebounding margin (+4.2), free throw percentage (.689) and turnover margin (+2.5).
Individually, sophomore Kim Smith ranks third in scoring (15.5), fourth in field goal percentage (.514) and three-point field goal average (1.7), fifth in three-point field goal percentage (.439), sixth in rebounding (7.0), seventh in offensive rebounds (2.5) and defensive rebounds (4.5), and 10th in steals (1.4). Sophomore Shona Thorburn ranks second in assist/turnover ratio (1.6), third in assists (3.9), seventh in three-point field goal average (1.5), 11th in three-point field goal percentage (.365), 13th in scoring (12.1) and 14th in free throw percentage (.640). Senior Kelsy Stireman ranks second in steals (2.3) and 10th in assists (2.7), while senior Carley Marshall is third in field goal percentage (.515). Sophomore Julie Wood leads the league in threepoint field goal percentage (.532) and ranks fourth in three-point field goal average (1.7). Senior Mandie Little is fifth in field goal percentage (.510) and 10th in offensive rebounds (2.2), while junior Lana Sitterud is 15th in three-point field goal percentage (.300).
STIREMAN STEPS IT UP FROM DOWNTOWN:
In the last five games, senior point guard Kelsy Stireman is 11-of-16 (.688) from three-point range, scoring three in each of the last three games. In the first 10 games of the season, she was 0-of-9 from downtown.
STEADY SMITH:
Sophomore All-America candidate Kim Smith has reached double digits scoring in 42 of 45 games on her career at Utah. She also has one or more treys in 40 of 45 games during her first two seasons as a Ute. This season alone, Smith has at least one three-pointer in 12 of 15 games and has pulled down five or more rebounds in 14 of 15 games.
RANKING NATIONALLY:
In NCAA statistics through Jan. 12, Utah ranks third nationally in three-point field goal percentage (.424), eighth in turnovers per game (13.6), 16th in three-point field goal average (7.0), 17th in field goal percentage (.468) and 20th in personal fouls per game (14.7).
HOME SWEET HOME:
Utah, 6-0 at home this season, has now won 22 games in a row at the Huntsman Center, dating back to the 2001-02 season. That is the fourth longest home win streak in the nation. 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. The Utes' last home loss came on Jan. 31, 2002, when the team fell 79-71 to UNLV.
WINNING THE REBOUNDING BATTLE:
Utah has out-rebounded its opponent in all but four games this season (UC Santa Barbara, Fresno State, Oklahoma and Oregon State). Three of the Utes' four losses this season came when they were out-rebounded by their opponent.
UTES PICKED TO WIN MOUNTAIN WEST:
Utah was selected as the unanimous favorite by the league's head coaches and select media to win the 2003-04 Mountain West Confeence crown. The Utes received all possible first-place votes to repeat as MWC regular-season champions (coaches cannot vote for their own team).
SMITH, THORBURN NAMED PRESEASON ALL-MWC:
Sophomore Kim Smith was 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 a Freshman All-American by both Full Court Press and womenscollegehoops.com.
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.
SMITH RECOGNIZED BY ESPN:
Utah sophomore Kim Smith was 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."
UTES ON THE RADIO:
All but two of Utah's remaining games this season will be broadcast on KALL-700 AM in Salt Lake City. 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. Color commentary for Utah home games is done by Utah's all-time leading scorer, Julie Krommenhoek. Utah's road games are called by Chris Tunis, who served as the president of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association from 1999-2001. The two games that won't be on KALL are Feb. 21 and March 6. However, those three games will be broadcast via the Internet at www.utahutes.com.
INTERNET AUDIO/VIDEO BROADCASTS:
All Utah women's basketball home games are available to be seen and heard on the Internet. To get to the game broadcasts, go to http://155.99.112.235/wbball/ or go to the women's basketball page at www.utahutes.com and click on "Wach/Listen to Utah Home Games Live." To watch/listen to the broadcasts, you are encouraged to a have high-speed internet connection.
UTES TO MAKE FIVE TELEVISION APPEARANCES:
Utah will make the first of five regular-season television appearances at Colorado State on Jan. 17 on Fox Sports Rocky Mountain. ESPN2 will televise the New Mexico at Utah match-up on Jan. 25, along with the title game of the conference tournament. In addition to Saturday's game, Fox Sports Net will regionally televise the Utah at UNLV (Feb. 8) and BYU at Utah (Feb. 28) games. MWC women's basketball will make its debut on College Sports Television (CSTV) when New Mexico hosts Utah on Feb. 19. CSTV will also televise the MWC Tournament semifinal games on March 12.
UP NEXT:
The Utes return home for games against Air Force and New Mexico next week. On Thursday, Jan. 22, Utah hosts the Falcons at 7 p.m. On Sunday, Jan. 25, Utah faces New Mexico at 1 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN2.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballUtah: 66, Cincinnati: 73 | Big 12 Tournament | Utah Basketball Postgame Press Conference
Wednesday, March 11
Utah: 75, Baylor: 101 | Utah Basketball Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, March 08
Utah: 78, Colorado: 92 | Utah Basketball Postgame Press Conference
Wednesday, March 04
Utah: 81, Colorado: 67 | Women's Basketball Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, March 01