Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Western Colorado (EXHIBITION) on October 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM
7:00 PM
Women's Basketball
vs Western Colorado (EXHIBITION)
Thursday, February 9
Salt Lake City
7:00 PM
University of Utah
50
vs
46
Arizona State
Utah Holds On To Beat Arizona State, 50-46
2/9/2012 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 9, 2012
SALT LAKE CITY - After a back-and-forth second half, the Utah women's basketball team defeated Arizona State, 50-46 on Thursday evening.
The second half featured four ties and six lead changes. With Arizona State holding a three-point lead, 37-34 with eight minutes remaining, the Utes took a six-point lead with a nine-point run to take 43-37 lead with four minutes remaining. Although ASU cut it to two after a pair of baskets over the next minute, Rachel Messer hit two free throws after a technical foul on the Sun Devils to push the lead back up to four points, 45-41 with three minutes left.
A Utah turnover led to a three-pointer by Alex Earl to cut the Ute lead to a point, 45-44, but Michelle Plouffe hit a three on the other end to push the lead back up to four, 48-44. Kali Bennett's jumper on ASU's possession made it 48-46 with just over a minute remaining.
The Utes took a timeout, and each team missed a shot on their possession. Janita Badon was fouled with 14 seconds remaining after grabbing a rebound on ASU's miss, and hit both free throws to put Utah back up to four points, 50-46. ASU missed two shots in the final 10 seconds, one of which was blocked by Plouffe.
"I am really proud of my team," Utah head coach Anthony Levrets said. "Very good team win for us. We focused a lot over the last few weeks on playing our way we play defensively. We just have to play as a team, and we did an unbelievable job with team defense tonight. We had to get back to being more compressed and playing more as a team and not allowing people to get to the paint without having a second person help on dribble penetration. We did a great job of that tonight."
Plouffe led Utah with 14 points and tied her career-high with four blocks. Taryn Wicijowski had 10 rebounds, six points and three blocks. Messer was in double-figure scoring with 11 points.
After poor shooting by both teams in the first half, both teams shot over 40 percent in the second half. ASU held the rebounding advantage (36 to 33) and the Utes had 19 turnovers compared to 12 for the Sun Devils.
"I told our staff before the game, that if we could keep it between 18-20 turnovers, then we're going to have a chance to win," Levrets said. "But if we turned it over 20 or more times, we'd end up giving too many easy baskets away. In the end we turned it over 19 times, and although on a normal night that's not what you want, but against that pressure I couldn't be happier with how we handled it. Having already played them one time was a huge benefit for us."
It took Utah nearly nine minutes to make their first field goal in the game. Arizona State shot just 17 percent from the field in the first half, but kept themselves in the game with 24 rebounds, including 12 offensive boards.
Down 8-5 with 12 minutes left in the first half, the Utes went on a 15-2 run to take a 10-point lead, 20-10 with three minutes remaining. ASU cut the lead to five by halftime, 20-15, with a pair of baskets in the final minutes. Plouffe had seven points at halftime to lead Utah.
With the Utes leading by nine in the second half, 24-15, Arizona State took an 11-2 run to tie the game at 26 with 14 minutes remaining.
The Utes continue at home on Saturday, Feb. 11, with Arizona.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's BasketballCrimson Corner with Bill Riley - Eric Weddle
Wednesday, October 01
Fan Fest 2025 Coaches and Players Interviews: Women's Basketball
Sunday, August 17
Utah Women's Basketball: 76 - BYU: 73 | Postgame Press Conference
Saturday, March 01
Utah vs BYU - The Rivalry Continues
Saturday, March 01