LAS VEGAS — The Utah women's basketball team struggled down the stretch to close the regular season with a 51-47 loss to UNLV on Saturday.
With the loss, Utah (14-16, 7-9 MWC) will be the fifth seed in the Mountain West Conference Tournament and will face eighth-seeded UNLV at 5:30 p.m. MT on Tuesday.
Utah held as much as a 13-point lead in the second half, 45-32 with 8:35 remaining. However, the Utes were held scoreless over the next eight minutes while UNLV went on a 16-0 run to take a three-point lead, 46-45 with a minute remaining.
Although Janita Badon made a layup with 57 seconds left to cut the Utes' deficit to a point, it was the final basket the Utes would make throughout the game as UNLV made three free throws in the final seconds for the win.
UNLV went 15-of-22 from the free-throw line in the second half, taking advantage of 12 Utah fouls in the half.
Utah was led by 16 points from Iwalani Rodrigues. Badon had 12 points while Michelle Plouffe scored 11. Michelle Harrison had a team-high 10 rebounds.
"I thought we played really well defensively, except for the fouls," interim Utah head coach Anthony Levrets said. "It's not easy to hold a team to 51 points and 37 percent shooting on their home floor. We just have trouble closing out games sometimes. We'll try to go do that for four days in the tournament."
SACRAMENTO STATE 69, WEBER STATE 54: At Sacramento, Calif., despite a strong farewell performance from senior forward Caitlin Anderson, the Weber State University women's basketball team fell to Sacramento State 69-54 in their 2010-11 season-finale.
Anderson had 17 points in her final performance in a Purple and White uniform, knocking down 7-of-16 shots from the field, including a pair of 3-point field goals. Anderson leaves as the school's No. 12 all-time scorer, No. 9 all-time rebounder and most accurate all-time 3-point shooter.
Sophomore forward/center Amanda Hughes added 15 points and six rebounds for Weber State, while sophomore guard Megan Patterson added seven points and four rebounds. Freshman point guard Justine Johnson added seven rebounds, five rebounds and five assists.
Weber State was ultimately done in by a season-high 27 turnovers against Sacramento State's high-pressure defense.
The Wildcats staked out a 2-0 lead on a pair of free throws from Patterson before the contest even tipped off as the Hornets were called for an administrative technical foul due to a faulty light behind the basket. Weber State led 5-2 on a 3-pointer from Anderson, but that would be the Wildcats' only leads of the afternoon as Sacramento State jumped out to a 43-17 lead at halftime.
The Wildcats trailed by as many as 29 before mounting a comeback, but could get no closer than the final score.
Weber State wrapped up its 2010-11 season at 7-21 overall and 3-13 in Big Sky Conference play.