Utah Utes guard Brynna Maxwell (11) has her shot blocked by Colorado Buffaloes guard Emma Clarke (3) during the second half of an NCAA women’s basketball game at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019. | Colter Peterson, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — Just like in the Providence loss a couple games ago, Utah women’s basketball got into a hole early, mounted a furious comeback and eventually ran out of steam in the fourth quarter.
The Utes fell to 7-5 overall in an 80-70 loss to Colorado in Utah’s Pac-12 opener at the Huntsman Center on Sunday afternoon.
The unbeaten Buffaloes were ready to go out of the gate, outscoring the Utes 23-15 in the first quarter. Colorado was deadly from deep in the first quarter, hitting four of their five 3-pointers attempted. Though Utah showed a little more resistance in the second quarter, the Utes went into the locker room down 42-30.
“We talked at halftime that we weren’t being as competitive as them. We had two offensive rebounds to their seven, we weren’t attacking to score, we weren’t getting to the free throw line, we weren’t defending the 3-point line. We were letting everything be taken to us,” Utah head coach Lynne Roberts said.
As they had done before in the loss to Providence, the Utes came out of halftime looking like a brand-new team. Utah outscored Colorado 28-19 in the third quarter, thanks to some halftime adjustments and a renewed fight. A 15-4 run by the Utes in the early stages of the third quarter cut Colorado’s 16-point lead to just five points. Dru Gylten and Lola Pendande were key for Utah in the run, with Gylten accounting for eight points and Pendande adding four. Utah shot a scorching 64.7% in the third quarter and cut the Colorado lead to one.
“We switched up defensively a little bit, put on some full-court pressure to try and take the heat a little bit to them, which worked, that made them sputter to start the half,” Roberts said. “I think our players just started fighting and playing with that passion and fight.”
Gylten and Pendande ran the pick-and-roll to perfection throughout the quarter. Gylten finished with 13 points and nine assists and Pendande had 20 points.
“Those two are great. Dru had nine assists and Lola is tough. They were playing her really physically in that second half. We were trying to get her the ball, but every time she caught it, it was a swarm and then we just didn’t shoot from outside very well,” Roberts said.
The Utes again got within one point of the Buffaloes on a pair of Julie Brosseau free throws with nine minutes left in the game, but Colorado would go on a 19-10 run from that point to close out the contest. Utah shot a dismal 25% in the final quarter and had seven turnovers. Roberts said the team needs to value possessions more in the clutch and take better shots.
“We’d get big stops, then we’d turn it over, or we would take a bad shot,” she said.
After the big third quarter, it looked like the Utes had the momentum and were about to get over the hump, but couldn’t quite do it.
“I was 100% confident that we could have this game. We missed a little bit of competitiveness,” Pendande said. “We need to fight 40 minutes. We can’t give up any shots, any empty possessions. We have to fight every possession. We need to be more smart with the ball.”
Roberts said she is proud of the team’s fight, but she wants to see that fight for the entire game.
“We’ve got to do this for 40 minutes. I’m tired of, ‘Let’s have a rowdy halftime and then come out and compete.’ We’re not good enough to do that,” Roberts added.
The Utes are competing as they open Pac-12 play, but need to take one more step to piece together a complete 40-minute performance in one of the best conferences in the country.
“I feel like we’re so close. We’ve got to make sure that we keep our heads about us and maintain consistency. We just have to keep chopping wood with it,” Roberts said.
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