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Women's Basketball
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Saturday, January 28
Salt Lake City
3:00 PM
University of Utah
63
vs
55
USC
Women's Basketball Rallies to Defeat USC, 63-55
1/28/2012 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2012
SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah women's basketball team rallied from an early 17-point deficit to defeat USC on Saturday afternoon, 63-55.
Four scored in double figures for the Utes, led by 21 points from Michelle Plouffe (all which came in the second half). Iwalani Rodrigues had 14 points, while Janita Badon (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Taryn Wicijowski (10 points, 10 rebounds) each had double-doubles.
"After the collapse that we had against UCLA and then the start we had against USC, I think a lesser group of kids could have folded it in, but that isn't who this group is," Utah head coach Anthony Levrets said. "They are unbelievable people who have been through a lot as a group already, and I think our best basketball is still ahead of us. I couldn't be prouder of this group of kids."
The Utes struggled early in the game. USC took a 17-0 lead before Rodrigues scored Utah's first basket of the game with 11:33 remaining in the half. It was the start of a surge for the Utes, scoring 19 more points in the half and surrendering just six points to USC. Utah was only down by three at halftime, 23-21. Rodrigues scored 11 first-half points to lead Utah.
"We started off poorly defensively, but then controlled the game for about 35 minutes - the pace and the speed," Levrets said. "All of a sudden it was like we got punched in the mouth and didn't recover in those five minutes. For the most part, we were defending ok. It wasn't a bad defensive effort to start, but it felt worse because we were down 17. After we got our first basket, it was one possession at a time."
USC came out of the locker room strong in the second half, pushing their lead up to as many as nine points. With the Trojans leading by eight, 36-28, the Utes turned it on for a 13-0 run to take a five-point lead, 41-36 with 10:27 remaining. Plouffe scored seven points in the run, while Wicijowski had six.
Although Utah pushed their lead up to seven over the next several minutes, USC rallied back to cut that lead to a point, 52-51 with six minutes remaining. Both teams fought to make shots before Badon's layup with 4:30 remaining pushed the lead back up to three points. Plouffe was fouled with a little over two minutes left, putting the lead at five points when she made both of her free throws, 56-51.
USC answered with two free throws of their own with just over a minute left, but Plouffe came back with a layup to again put the lead at five. The Trojans resorted to fouling down the stretch. Rachel Messer made a pair from the charity stripe, and after two missed shots from USC, Wicijowski made one-of-two from the line for an eight-point lead with 13 seconds left, 61-53. Although USC's Ariya Crook had a late layup, the Utes added two more from the free-throw line from Plouffe with five seconds remaining for the final eight-point advantage, 63-55.
The difference in the game came down to free-throw shooting. While USC was 6-for-6 from the line, the Utes went 14-of-18.
Three players were in double figure scoring from USC, led by Crook's 17 points.
Utah hits the road next weekend to take on Oregon and Oregon State.
Players Mentioned
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