The Utah women’s basketball team put up a tough fight but it wasn’t enough to get past the Oregon Sunday afternoon, and they fell to the Ducks 84-68. Utah is now 14-7 overall and 5-5 in Pac-12 play.
Lack of Dominance
By the time the Utes finally got things going, it was too late. Utah came out of the gates struggling on both ends of the floor. They just couldn’t get things clicking. By the time they did, they were too far behind to make a comeback. The Utes came out flat. Head Coach Lynne Roberts called the lackluster start “embarrassing” and blamed herself.
“I have to do a better job of getting them ready to play. That is unacceptable when you are playing the Number 7-ranked team in the country and you come out flat. I think that Tanaeya and Tilar were fearless and aggressive and if we would have had 10 players like that today, it probably would have been a different game in terms of mentality,” said Roberts.
That flatness was evident when Oregon took a 23-4 lead with 3:08 on the clock. Utah then answered with a 15-2 run that cut the Duck’s lead to 25-17 heading into the second. The run was sparked by a three-pointer from Tilar Clark and capped off by back-to-back threes from Williams to make it an eight-point game.
Struggling Offense
The Utes struggled offensively in the fourth quarter. The team shot just 23-percent while Oregon went 8-for-11 for 72-percent and pulled away from Utah for good. Utah was able to cut the Oregon lead to 12 several times in the fourth quarter but the deficit stayed in double figures for the remainder of the game.
Utes in Double Figures
Utah had four players finish the game in double-figures, led by Daneesha Provo with 19 points that included going 8-for-10 from the free throw line. Tanaeya BoClair came off the bench to put in integral minutes while scoring 13 points and adding eight rebounds.
Tilar Clark played a career-high 33 minutes off the bench and scored 12 points. She was key on defense with two steals. Tori Williams chipped in 10 points. She received some playing time at the point guard position and tied her career-high assists with four.
NEXT UP
Utah will host the Colorado Buffaloes for a REDOUT game on Thursday, February 1. The action will tip off at 7:00 p.m. MT in the Jon M. Huntsman Center.