After a horrendous start Monday night against UC-Santa Barbara, the Utah women's basketball team was just hoping to escape with some sort of victory in their final game prior to the holidays.
Things were looking rather bleak when the Utes trailed by 10 points just six minutes into the game. But not only did the Utes come back to win, they did it in dominating fashion, cruising to a 71-45 victory at the Huntsman Center.Merry Christmas.
Early on it looked like a blue Christmas when the Utes couldn't shoot, rebound or take care of the ball against an aggressive Gaucho team that jumped to a 12-2 lead. The Utes didn't even score a field goal until Amber McEwen made a layup at the 11:30 mark.
However, five minutes later, the Utes were in the lead for good at 19-18 and by halftime the lead was up to 33-25.
"I was proud of them," said Ute coach Elaine Elliott. "That's a tough game to play. They totally took it to us the first eight minutes. It just took time for us to settle down."
Elliott credited "excellent defense" for keeping the Utes in the game in the rough early-going and helping them extend the lead in the second half.
"I needed everybody to step up and play and they did," said Elliott.
With the Gauchos still in the game with 13 minutes left at 41-34, the Utes held them scoreless for more than eight minutes, while running off 16 straight points to put the game away.
Julie Krommenhoek scored 11 of her 15 points in the final eight minutes as she came back from another slow start (0-for-6 in the first half).
McEwen was once again the Utes' most reliable performer as she kept the Utes alive early with 20 first-half points on her way to a 26-point, 14-rebound night.
Amy Alcorn came off the bench to score 12 points, while Hilary King-Noel pulled down nine rebounds for Utah.
UCSB (2-3), which shot a dreadful 29 percent from the field, got 14 points from Amy Smith and Erin Alexander.
The victory moves the Utes to 6-2 on the year as they take a 10-day break before heading to Texas for a two-game trip, at the University of Texas Dec. 28 and SMU Dec. 30.
They'll need the break, after losing two key players in Monday's game. Starting guard Alli Bills re-injured her right knee and will be out a minimum of two weeks. And reserve forward Angie Bandy-Donahue may be out even longer after breaking a bone in her left hand. Then there's Laura Ross, who hasn't practiced in a week because of a hip injury.