Utah women’s basketball: Utes eyeing Selection Sunday riding high

Utah coach Lynne Roberts high-fives players on the bench after the team’s victory over Washington State in Las Vegas. — Utah coach Lynne Roberts high-fives players on the bench after the team’s victory over Washington State in the Pac-12 women’s tournament Thursday, March 3, 2022, in Las Vegas.

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The Utah women’s basketball team wrote quite the Cinderella story in Las Vegas during the Pac-12 tournament.

A No. 6 seed, the Utes advanced to the championship game, where they fell to the defending national champion, and top seed, Stanford. Their run included an upset of Oregon.

Though disappointed with the defeat to the Cardinal, Utah is eagerly awaiting Selection Sunday and continuing its season.

Meanwhile, coach Lynne Roberts said her team made a statement during the Pac-12 tournament. And there’s more of that to come.

“I am motivated to get back here and actually climb the ladder to cut (the nets) down, and it will happen,” said Roberts. “We will do it. We will be back.”

Numbers game

6: Seed of the Utah women’s basketball team that advanced to the Pac-12 championship game.

24: Points scored by Utah freshman Gianna Kneepkens, on her 19th birthday, in the Utes’ upset of Oregon.

198.575: Team score for the Red Rocks against Minnesota on senior night, the second best in Utah history and tied for the best score by any team in the country this season.

From the archives

Why not us? Runnin’ Utes enter Pac-12 tournament on a losing skid, but hopes remain high (Deseret News)
American gymnasts can have elite and NCAA careers simultaneously. Here’s how (Deseret News)
How Utah ties performed at the NFL combine (Deseret News)
Colorado’s hot shooting quiets Utah’s senior night (Deseret News)
Why Utah’s women’s basketball has a puncher’s chance against No. 2 Stanford in Pac-12 title game (Deseret News)
Maile O’Keefe is a national champion and the reigning Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year, but she has gotten even better (Deseret News)
Utah’s Branden Carlson and Lazar Stefanovic earn All-Pac-12 postseason honors (Deseret News)

Fanalyst

Comments from Deseret News readers

So pleased with this team. They may well have taken the measure of Stanford, but four games in five nights is brutal, to say the least. That is not a fair or even reasonable bracketing. I love their fire, and with the coach saying she wants to ‘cut down the nets’ ... that’s my kind of coach. Way to go, Lady Utes. You made it through the bracket to reach the final game. The experience you had in doing so will pay great dividends next season.

—top of the world

Utes definitely need to keep their heads up, that was awesome run to get to the championship game! As the article states, it did look like they just ran out of gas in the second half and Stanford took advantage. Looking more and more likely that it will be the women’s teams carrying the flag for the state in the NCAA tournament this year, so good luck to both the Utes and the Cougars in the Big Dance!

— Pacer