LAS VEGAS — Utah’s next postseason game will be in the NCAA Tournament.
That’s because the No. 22 Utes simply ran into a team, No. 7 UCLA, that was too tough to overcome, as Utah fell to the Bruins 67-57 in the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament quarterfinals late Thursday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Utah, after losing to UCLA by 30 in Los Angeles two weeks ago, came out aggressive in their quarterfinal matchup. The Utes (22-10) even led early in the second quarter, before a 7-0 run by UCLA gave the Bruins a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Despite that effort, UCLA never pulled away until the final quarter, when the Bruins used another mini-spurt, this time an 8-0 run sparked by Angela Dugalic, to finally put this one away.
“They (UCLA) make things hard, but I’m incredibly proud of my team. I thought we battled and played as hard as we physically could. We never quit,” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said.
“They hit kind of end-of-shot-clock daggers. We left some points on the table, free throws and missed some layups particularly in the first half. But against that pressure and the physicality, I’ll emphasize that, to only have eight turnovers, it’s pretty impressive.”
Roberts called Dugalic the X-factor in the game — she finished with 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting while adding four rebounds, three assists, one steal and a block.
“Our team is so deep. All 12 players, you have to guard us. We all have different things that we’re really good at. You take away one thing, we’ve got another thing,” Dugalic said.
UCLA’s physical presence played a determining factor in Utah shooting 35% from the floor and just 9 of 30 from 3-point range.
“I want to congratulate UCLA. They made plays. I felt like we were right there. They hit a couple of big shots,” Roberts said. “They play hard. They’re disciplined. They’re the whole package, and they have the ability to win a national championship for sure, so a lot of respect for them.”
The Bruins shot 48.1% from the floor, 8 of 17 from 3 and simply had too many weapons even though Utah followed its game plan of containing 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts.
Betts had eight points and seven rebounds as Utah doubled down defensively to try and contain her.
“When you’re going to blitz Betts, you have to pick your poison,” Roberts said.
Among the UCLA players who took advantage of the “pick your poison” type of approach were Charisma Osborne, who had 16 points, and Kiki Rice, who added 13 points, nine rebounds and a block.
The Bruins also controlled the boards, finishing with a 42-27 rebounding advantage and a slight 15-12 edge in second-chance points.
Utah, which has tightened its rotation in recent weeks in the lead-up to the postseason, had four players in double-figures. Among them, Alissa Pili had 16 points, five rebounds and two assists, while Kennady McQueen added 14 points, four steals, three rebounds and an assist.
Ines Vieira (11 points) and Maty Wilke (10) also scored in double-figures.
“Lynne does such a great job with their team and their program. Hats off to them, and can’t wait for them to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament,” UCLA coach Cori Close said of Utah.
“At this time of year we always say in our program the reality is that the tougher, more together team wins, and I thought both teams were pretty darn tough but we found a way to win every quarter.”
Vieira went down twice in the first half, the second after Betts fell on her as both players fought for a rebound. The guard, a fan favorite, was met with raucous cheers when she returned to the court both times.
Those sequences are a microcosm of what the season has looked like for the Utes — even with bangs and bruises and significant injuries causing constant shuffling of the lineup, they’ve found the grit to keep fighting.
Thursday night, that effort didn’t end with a win. The optimism, though, is that Utah, who has beaten four top 10 teams this season, can make another deep run in the NCAA Tournament after a challenging regular season and two nights in the Pac-12 tournament.
“I was really proud of our effort tonight and just the urgency part of it. When we play like that we’re a hard team to beat,” McQueen said.
“We came up short tonight, but definitely proud of our fight.”