Three-Point Shooting And Solid Defense Pushes Utah Past ORU, 78-58

Thursday, December 5

Salt Lake City, UT

7:00 PM

University of Utah

5-3,0-0Pac-12

Oral Roberts

4-6,0-0Summit League

Oral Roberts

Utah

Photo by: Eli Falk

Three-Point Shooting And Solid Defense Pushes Utah Past ORU, 78-58

12/5/2019 9:39 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The University of Utah women's basketball team scored 10-or-more three-pointers for the second straight game and put together solid defense tonight against ORU, coming away with a 78-58 win over the Golden Eagles. The Utes improved to 5-3 on the season with its fifth straight victory.

The Utes shot 44-percent from the floor that included going 11-of-18 (61%) from the three-point line, hitting nine of their 11 threes in the first half and going 6-for-6 in the first quarter. Utah held ORU to 26-percent shooting from the floor including 26-percent from the three while forcing 14 turnovers.

"I think we have been pretty good defensively all year and I think offensively we have been getting better," head coach Lynne Roberts said. "That second half was not great. I thought we did a really good job in the first half other than the offensive rebounds, they had 21 offensive rebounds. Credit to them – I thought they played really hard and competed, which I respect."

Utah finished the game with four double-digit scorers, led by redshirt junior Julie Brosseau. She reached double-digits for the third straight game, scoring a season-high 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting while grabbing three boards.

The true freshman duo of Brynna Maxwell and Lola Pendande continued their double-digit ways with 13 points from Maxwell that included going 3-for-3 from the arc while Pendande added 11 points, five rebounds and four blocks. Andrea Torres rounded out Utah's double-digits with 10 points, scoring eight of them in the fourth quarter.

"I think it is a good problem to have when you win by 20 and you don't feel like you played very well," Roberts said. "I think we need to make sure we celebrate every win – we just won our fifth game in a row – and things are coming along. Every game presents a learning opportunity. Today we learned that we aren't that great when we don't play with intensity. We took care of the ball, shot the ball well, I just don't think we played to our potential. That is a learning experience though and I am proud of our team for winning."

Turnovers plagued the Utes early in the first quarter, allowing Oral Roberts to keep things close, including taking a one-point lead with under five minutes to go in the period. Utah got its composure and gained momentum for the remaining time in the quarter, going on a 15-3 run that included three three-pointers from Brosseau to send the Utes into the second quarter with a 26-15 lead.

The offensive energy carried into the defensive side of the ball in the second quarter, holding the Golden Eagles to just 16-percent shooting from the floor while forcing four turnovers. The Utes were able to take off on a 11-0 run that included five points from Dru Gylten to give Utah 23-point lead with less than four minutes to go in the second quarter.

ORU outscored the Utes 19-15 in the third quarter, holding Utah to 33-percent shooting from the floor. The Golden Eagles made it a 16-point game with seven minutes left to play in the period, but that would be the closest they would get the remainder of the game.

Utah went on an 8-2 run in the fourth quarter, taking a 68-46 lead with 6:55 left in the game before Torres scored Utah's last six points of the game to give them the 78-58 win.

The Utes will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 14 when they host Nevada at 11:30 a.m. MT in the Jon M. Huntsman Center. The game will be live streamed on UtahUtes.com and will be Utah's annual Holiday Spirit game.