Utah women fall 84-54 to No. 8 UCLA on Friday night
It's been a rough start for Utah to begin Pac-12 play — arguably the toughest schedule of any team in the country to begin their conference season. First the Utes took on No. 3 Oregon State before facing No. 2 Oregon two days later.
After returning home, Utah was welcomed with a matchup against No. 8 UCLA on Friday, making it the Utes' third consecutive game against a top-8 team. With the way the Utes played Friday night, it was clear they were tired in two ways: tired of facing these talented teams, and then just tired physically.
Despite leading midway through the third quarter, Utah eventually fell to the Bruins 84-54 on Friday night, with the final score not indicative of how close the game truly was.
“I felt like we had momentum, but that moment, it was kind of like, ‘Whoa,’ ” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said, trying to describe Utah being outscored 35-12 in the fourth quarter. “I don’t know what it was. I just felt like we were so close. We competed, our kids were in it.”
Bryanna Maxwell's three-pointer with under four minutes to play in the third quarter gave the Utes a 39-36 lead, a lead they ad at 42-41 with just over two minutes to play in the frame. But the Bruins ended the third quarter on an 8-0 run, before beginning the fourth quarter on a 23-4 run.
“They just kind of took over that fourth quarter,” Roberts said. :Once they had a 10, 11-point lead, they kind of relaxed a little bit and the rim got a little bigger for them. They got a 10-point, 11-point lead, and that’s why I called that timeout to start the fourth quarter. ... We got tight and it was just a collision of that.”
Julie Brosseau came off the bench for the Utes to score a team-high 10 points, while Lola Pendande added nine points. Dru Gylten finished with seven points and six assists while Maxwell added six points and seven rebounds.
“I think we just lost focus,” Brosseau said. “We missed some opportunities to get some stops, then we missed some opportunities to score, and it just snowballed. We didn’t really see it because we were so in the moment, but we definitely made some mistakes.”
Utah consistently battled throughout the game despite its shooting struggles. The Utes shot 20-for-55 (36.4-percent) from the field and 6-of-25 (24-percent) from three-point territory — and trailed by nine at the half.
But none of that stopped them from battling in the third quarter, as Maxwell's three-pointer capped off a 14-2 run by the Utes out fo the break. But over the final 3:23 of the third quarter, Utah went 0-for-3 from the field, all misses.
Utah now returns to action when it hosts USC (8-7, 0-4 Pac-12) on Sunday afternoon — tipoff is set for 12 p.m. from the Jon M. Huntsman Center. Both teams will enter looking to win their first Pac-12 game of the season.
“The message is, we’re so close, and I hope what they see is that it sucks to lose and we should be disappointed," Roberts said.