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
1/20/2004 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2004
SALT LAKE CITY -
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COMING UP:
The Utah women's basketball team (12-4, 2-0), opens conference play at home with a 7 p.m. game against Air Force (3-11, 0-1) this Thursday, Jan. 22, in the Huntsman Center. The game will be broadcast live on KALL-700 AM in Salt Lake City and on the Internet at www.utahutes.com.
A QUICK LOOK AT UTAH:
Utah (12-4, 2-0) sits atop the Mountain West Conference after road wins last weekend at Wyoming and Colorado State. The Utes ended CSU's 17-game MWC home winning streak with a 55-51 win Saturday afternoon. Utah shot just 33 percent from the field on the game, compared to the 44 percent of the Rams. However, the Utes won the rebounding battle 38-32, including 15-4 on the offensive end. Utah also forced 13 CSU turnovers. Sophomore Shona Thorburn led all scorers with 25 points. She also added six rebounds. Sophomore All-America candidate Kim Smith had her third double-double of the season, finishing with 18 points and 11 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive side. Smith also dished out two assists and nabbed two steals. Senior Kelsy Stireman dished out five assists and also grabbed five boards.
On the season, Utah is led by Smith, who averages 15.7 points and 7.3 rebounds, and Thorburn, who adds 12.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists. As a team, Utah is out-rebounding its opponents 34.5 to 30.2 and outscoring them by an 11.4 margin.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION:
Air Force (3-11, 0-1) dropped its conference opener 65-43 to New Mexico last Saturday. The Lobo defense held the Falcons to just 43 points, their lowest scoring output of the season. Air Force shot 31 percent (15-of-48) from the field and just 9-of-20 (45 percent) from the charity stripe. The Falcons were led in scoring and rebounding by Amoy Jackson, who had 14 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Letricia Castillo added 12 points for the Falcons.
Air Force has three players - Castillo (13.5), Shawna Neff (11.2) and Jackson (10.6), who average 10 or more points per game. Jackson leads the team with 6.0 rebounds per game, while Jennifer Roesch dishes out a team-high 3.8 assists per game. The Falcons are shooting 38 percent from the field and a league-low 60 percent from the free throw line on the season.
SERIES SHORTS:
Utah is undefeated (13-0) all-time against the Falcons. The last time the two teams met, on March 12, 2003, Utah won 83-46 in the first round of the MWC Tournament in Las Vegas. The Utes are 5-0 at home, 5-0 away and 3-0 at a neutral site vs. Air Force.
AP TOP 25 POLL JAN. 19, 2004
Rank School 03-04 Total Last (first-place votes) Record Points Week1. Duke (45) 14-1 1,148 1 2. Tennessee (1) 14-1 1,096 5 3. Texas 15-2 980 3 3. Texas Tech 16-1 980 2 5. Connecticut 12-2 928 4 6. Stanford 14-2 926 7 7. Penn State 13-3 880 8 8. Purdue 14-2 879 9 9. Kansas State 13-2 779 10 9. Minnesota 15-1 779 6 11. Louisiana Tech 12-2 640 12 12. LSU 15-2 609 14 13. North Carolina 13-2 607 13 14. Colorado 14-2 531 15 15. Oklahoma 13-2 528 15 16. DePaul 16-1 488 17 17. Georgia 13-4 393 11 18. Miami 15-1 312 21 19. Baylor 14-3 268 24 20. Michigan State 13-3 217 25 21. TCU 13-3 164 18 22. Auburn 13-4 149 20 23. Villanova 13-3 148 19 24. Boston College 12-3 134 22 25. Houston 13-2 90 NR
Others receiving votes: Vanderbilt 84, Notre Dame 32, Virginia Tech 31, Ohio State 28, Florida 25, Utah 25, SMS 24, Rutgers 18, Arizona 16, Clemson 3, Idaho 3, Maryland 3, South Carolina 2, Geo Washington 1, Hartford 1, UNLV 1.
ESPN/USA TODAY POLL JAN. 20, 2004
Rank School 03-04 Total Last (first-place votes) Record Points Week1. Duke (39) 14-1 999 2 2. Tennessee (1) 14-1 949 5 3. Texas Tech 16-1 888 1 4. Connecticut 13-2 848 4 5. Texas 15-2 822 3 6. Stanford 14-2 801 7 7. Purdue 14-2 723 10 8. Penn State 13-3 719 8 9. Minnesota 15-1 704 6 10. Kansas State 13-2 656 11 11. North Carolina 14-2 537 13 12. Louisiana Tech 12-2 529 12 13. LSU 15-2 497 14 14. Colorado 14-2 484 15 15. Oklahoma 13-2 455 16 16. Georgia 13-4 414 9 17. DePaul 16-1 372 18 18. Miami (Fla.) 15-1 276 21 19. Boston College 12-3 222 20 20. Michigan State 13-3 208 23 21. TCU 13-3 196 17 22. Houston 14-2 150 25 23. Virginia Tech 13-3 121 19 24. Baylor 14-3 108 NR 25. Villanova 13-3 74 24
Others receiving votes: Vanderbilt (14-2) 55; Auburn (13-4) 46; Ohio State (10-5) 43; Clemson (13-3) 23; Arizona (14-4) 22; Southwest Missouri State (13-1) 19; Utah (12-4) 11; South Alabama (14-1) 8; Chattanooga (15-2) 6; Florida (12-5) 4; Rutgers (9-7) 3; Montana (13-4) 2; Notre Dame (9-7) 2; St. Joseph's (10-4) 2; Western Michigan (9-6) 2.
MWC STANDINGS
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct.UTAH 2 0 1.000 12 4 .750UNLV 1 0 1.000 12 2 .857 New Mexico 1 0 1.000 9 5 .643 Colorado State 1 1 .500 10 5 .667 Wyoming 1 1 .500 5 10 .333 San Diego State 0 1 .000 5 9 .357 Air Force 0 1 .000 3 11 .214 BYU 0 2 .000 10 6 .625
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 (.455), three-point field goal percentage (.404), rebounding defense (30.2) and three-point field goal average (7.0), and ranks second in scoring (66.6), scoring defense (55.2), assists (14.9), turnover margin (+2.3) and assist/turnover ratio (1.1), third in scoring margin (+11.4) and rebounding margin (+4.3), and fourth in free throw percentage (.683).
Individually, sophomore Kim Smith ranks third in scoring (15.7) and field goal percentage (.508), fourth in three-point field goal percentage (.443), three-point field goal average (1.7) and offensive rebounds (2.7), fifth in rebounding (7.2) and eighth in defensive rebounds (4.6). Sophomore Shona Thorburn ranks third in assist/turnover ratio (1.6), fourth in assists (3.7), fifth in three-point field goal average (1.6), seventh in scoring (12.9), 11th in three-point field goal percentage (.361), 12th in free throw percentage (.643) and 14th in field goal percentage (.404). Senior Kelsy Stireman ranks third in steals (2.3) and ninth in assists (2.9), while senior Carley Marshall is sixth in field goal percentage (.486). Sophomore Julie Wood leads the league in three-point field goal percentage (.490) and ranks sixth in three-point field goal average (1.6), while senior Mandie Little is fifth in field goal percentage (.495).
RANKING NATIONALLY:
In NCAA statistics through Jan. 19, Utah ranks third nationally in three-point field goal percentage (.404), fifth in turnovers per game (13.1), 13th in personal fouls per game (14.6), 16th in scoring defense (55.3), 17th in three-point field goal average (7.0) and 23rd in field goal percentage (.455).
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 third longest home win streak in the nation behind Texas (28) and Arizona (23). 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.
STIREMAN STEPS IT UP FROM DOWNTOWN:
In the last six games, senior point guard Kelsy Stireman is 12-of-18 (.667) from three-point range, scoring three in three of the six games. In the first 10 games of the season, she was 0-of-9 from downtown.
STEADY SMITH:
Sophomore Kim Smith has reached double digits scoring in 43 of 46 games on her career at Utah. She also has one or more treys in 41 of 46 games during her first two seasons as a Ute. This season alone, Smith has at least one three-pointer in 13 of 16 games and has pulled down five or more rebounds in 15 of 16 games.
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 MWC 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. She is one of 35 players and just three sophomores 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.
SMITH RECOGNIZED BY ESPN:
Utah sophomore All-America candidate 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 (Feb. 21 and March 6) 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. Color commentary for Utah home games is done by Utah's all-time leading scorer, Julie Krommenhoek. Utah's 2003-04 road games are called by Chris Tunis, who served as the president of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association from 1999-2001.
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 "Watch/Listen to Utah Home Games Live." To watch/listen to the broadcasts, you are encouraged to a have high-speed internet connection. You will also need to have QuickTime Player installed on your computer. QuickTime Player is free software available at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/. Although this is an Apple product, it can be loaded onto both Apple and PC machines.
UTES TO MAKE FIVE TELEVISION APPEARANCES:
Utah will make a school-record five regular-season appearances on television this season. ESPN2 will televise the New Mexico at Utah match-up this Sunday, Jan. 25, along with the title game of the conference tournament. Fox Sports Net regionally televised Utah's win at CSU last Saturday and will air two other regular-season contests - Utah at UNLV (Feb. 8) and BYU at Utah (Feb. 28). 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 host New Mexico in a nationally-televised game on ESPN2 at 1 p.m. this Sunday, Jan. 25.
Players Mentioned
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Sunday, March 01