Women's Basketball Falls to Second-Seed Texas
AUSTIN, Texas – The Utah women's basketball season came to an end in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday afternoon. The Utes were defeated by second-seed Texas, 78-56. The Utes finished the season with 21 wins, the most in a single season since the 2012-13 season.
Kennady McQueen led the Utes, who scored 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including going 4-for-7 on threes. Jenna Johnson rounded out the double-figure scoring with 14 points. McQueen led the team with four rebounds. Dru Gylten dished out a team-high five assists against the Longhorns (28-6).
The Utes shot 51.1 percent from the floor in the game, the third best mark by a Utah team in the NCAA Tournament.
Early in the contest, the Longhorns and Utes traded buckets. With the game tied at 2-2, Dru Gylten found Jenna Johnson on a back door cut, putting Utah ahead by two, 4-2. Texas slowly stretched the lead to four, but Kennady McQueen started hitting up and hit her first three of the game, putting Utah down one, 10-9. Texas would grow the lead back to six, but McQueen hit another three cutting into the lead. With Utah down there, McQueen hit her third three of the first quarter, tying the game at 17. However, after the first quarter, Utah would trail by two, 19-17.
Texas started heating up in the second quarter as they extended its lead over the Utes to ten, 29-19, over the first three and a half minutes of the quarter. Utah started chipping away at the lead, and after a pair of free throws by Johnson and a layup by McQueen, Utah trailed by six, 29-23. The Longhorns increased their lead to 14, 44-30, which would be the halftime score.
The Utes continued to battle after halftime, and a layup by Johnson put the Utes down by 17. Texas' shooting stayed remained hot in the game as they slowly grew the lead to 26 with 5:48 to go. Utah limited the Longhorns to four points the remainder of the quarter, and a layup by Kelsey Rees got the Utes offense going. After three-quarters of play, Utah battled but trailed by 22, 64-42.
The Utes continued to battle in the fourth quarter, and a jumper by McQueen in the point put the lead down to 72-52. However, the Utes could not get anything else going and were defeated by the Longhorns, 78-56.
TALKING ABOUT THE GAME: HEAD COACH LYNNE ROBERTS
"I am incredibly proud of my team for the season that we had. I told them after the game that sometimes you just have to give the other team credit. I thought Texas played just incredibly well. I don't want to move on too quickly. We deserve to enjoy the season we had."
STANDOUT STAT
- 21 – The Utes finished with 21 wins on the season. This is the most wins since 2012-13 and was the 29th season in program history with 20 or more wins.
- 4 – For the second straight game, Kennady McQueen hit four or more three-pointers in the game. She finished the NCAA Tournament with 10 made three-pointers in her two games.
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