Women's Basketball Falls 64-54 To Washington

Thursday, March 7

Las Vegas, NV

9:30 PM

University of Utah

20-10

Washington

10-20

Washington

Utah

3/8/2019 12:31 AM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The University of Utah women's basketball team fell 64-54 in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament tonight against the Washington Huskies. The Utes are 20-10 overall this season.

The Utes trailed by as many as 19 points in the third quarter, but battled back to a seven-point game in the fourth. Unfortunately for the Utes, the gap was too great to close and the Utes suffered its 10^thloss of the season.

"I thought Washington played a heck of a game and came in loose and full of fire and shot the ball well," head coach Lynne Roberts said. "They defended us well and so I congratulate them on advancing, it is a great win for them and a tough loss for us."

"I just told the team that this year will take a lot of mental discipline to not look back at the what-ifs. We had some painful close losses and had multiple injuries to impact players and it is really hard to not just focus on that. But I told the team I wanted to focus on what we did do. When we came into this year, we said we wanted to do things that Utah basketball had never done in the Pac-12, and we did that. I am incredibly proud of our team and their resiliency throughout this year and they have been an absolute joy to coach."

Megan Huff and Andrea Torres led the Utes in scoring with 10 points each while Huff added a career-high 17 rebounds for her 17^thdouble-double of the season. Kiana Moore and Erika Bean added nine points each while Niyah Becker had a strong second half with eight points and three rebounds.

Washington started the game on a 7-0 run, with Utah not scoring until the 8:29 mark, sparking a 7-0 run in return with Andrea Torres putting up five of Utah's first seven points. The Utes were able to shoot 45-percent from the floor in the first, but after four ties and multiple lead changes, the Huskies were able to take a one-point advantage into the second quarter.

The Utes were able to take a three-point lead with 6:13 in the second quarter, but it would be their last lead of the half. Turnovers plagued the Utes in the second quarter after only scoring nine points, allowing Washington to take off on a 10-0 run at the end of the quarter to gain a 34-26 lead heading into halftime.

With Utah's field goal drought poured into the third quarter, not hitting a field goal until the 4:25 mark, shooting just 18-percent in the period with Washington holding a 46-30 lead. Utah was just 1-of-9 from the three in the third, allowing the Huskies to head into the fourth quarter with a large lead.

The Utes kicked it into gear in the fourth quarter on offense, taking off on a 10-0 run to make it a seven-point game with just 1:51 left to play. Six of Utah's 10 unanswered points came from Becker, but the Utes were forced to foul down the stretch and were unable to close the gap, suffering the 64-54 loss.