Women's Basketball Routs Utah Valley, 97-27
SALT LAKE CITY – A strong offense outing by the University of Utah women's basketball team led Utah to a 97-27 victory over Utah Valley on Friday afternoon. The Utes shot 55 percent in the contest and held the Wolverines to shoot 24 percent.
Utah was locked in on the defensive end of the court as they limited the Wolverines to under 10 points in each of the four quarters and forced Utah Valley into 32 turnovers. This is the most turnovers the Utes have forced since the 1999-00 season.
The Utes were dialed in from behind the arch as they shot 11-for-24 on three-pointers in the win and had six players hit a three. Kennady McQueen led the team with five made three-pointers. Utah shot 55 percent from the floor and scored 42 points in the paint.
Utah Valley scored the first bucket of the game, but the Utes responded over the next three minutes and went on a 12-0 run. McQueen hit two three-pointers during the run, and three other Utes had layups. The Utes continued the run and stretched it to a 20-0 run and held a lead of 20-2 late in the first quarter. The Utes took a 25-5 lead after one-quarter of play as Jenna Johnson hit a three to end the scoring for Utah.
Opening the second quarter, the Utes continued to add to their lead, extending it to 25 points, 31-6, after a layup by Gianna Kneepkens. The Utes continued to increase the lead through the quarter, and a layup by Johnson put the Utes ahead by 28, 34-6. Utah grew the lead to 38 points going into halftime, 50-12. The 12 points allowed are the fewest in a half since Jan. 6, 2010, when they allowed 13 points to Utah Valley.
Utah in the first half shot 59 percent from the floor and hit eight three-pointers in the first half.
Opening the second half, the Utes scored the first seven points, capped by a Alissa Pili layup. Midway through the third quarter, the Utes stretched the lead to 49, 65-16, after a driving layup by Lani White. To end the third quarter, Utah led 74-18. Utah shot 47.1 percent in the third quarter.
Utah Valley scored the first bucket of the fourth quarter before the Utes rallied off 12-straight points, growing its lead to 66 points, 86-20, following a Johnson jumper. Utah added to the lead and came away with a 97-27 victory.
GAME LEADERS
Sophomore Kennady McQueen led the Utes with 15 points. She was 5-of-10 shooting from behind the arch. Her five made three-pointers are a season-high and one off of tying a career-high. Alissa Pili led the Utes with eight rebounds in the contest, and Inês Vieira led the Utes with five assists.
TALKING ABOUT THE GAME: HEAD COACH LYNNE ROBERTS
"It was a great game; hard to nitpick, but I'm proud of our team. I challenged them to come out better and start the game better; how we came out against Idaho in our first game was just not good or not good enough. We set the tone there in the first five or six minutes, and anytime you have your center diving for loose balls, we were tenacious and threw the first punch, theoretically, and we were just off to the races from there. Our defense was really good, and it forced many turnovers, enabling us to get out and run. I'm proud of our team; it was a total team effort. Everybody played, everybody scored quite a bit, the minutes were balanced, and all that stuff is good. I also really appreciate the chance to honor Veterans Day. I come from a military family, and it's a cool thing to do. There's not much we can do as basketball players to help our armed forces and support them, but anything we can do to show respect, I'm all about it. I was proud of that and honored to do that as well."
STANDOUT STAT
11 – The Utes hit a season-high 11 three-pointers in the win over Utah Valley. Last season the Utes averaged 9.5 made three-pointers per game. In the Lynne Roberts era, when the Utes hit eight or more threes in a game, they are 62-25. Leading the Utes in made three-pointers was Kennady McQueen with five.
UP NEXT
Utah returns to action on Sunday evening when they host Southeastern Louisiana at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. The game will be aired on ESPN700 with Tyson Ewing and Milee Enger calling the shots, or you can find it on the Utah live stream. Live Stats can be found at UtahUtes.com.
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