SPOKANE, Washington — When the halftime buzzer went off Saturday night at the McCarthey Athletic Center, Utah found itself leading by just three in a game it had been ahead by 17 in the first quarter.
Gone was a 20-3 Utah lead. Instead, a 17-0 Jackrabbits run had made it a one-possession game going into the break.
As has been the case so often this year, though, the Utes picked themselves up following a stretch of adversity and followed their veteran leaders to victory.
This time, Alissa Pili, Kennady McQueen and Jenna Johnson spurred Utah to a 68-54 win over South Dakota State in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
“I’m proud of our team. It is never easy in the NCAA Tournament to get a win. Tonight was not easy. We never could get very comfortable. They had us scouted pretty well,” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said.
“And I think we just made plays when we needed to. That second quarter was less than impressive on our part offensively, but what a great third quarter out of halftime to score 26 and take control.”
“We talked about at halftime just throwing the first punch. Coach said once you get to the NCAA Tournament, no game is easy. Whether you’re the higher seed or not, everybody is going to keep playing until that final buzzer goes off.”
— Utah guard Kennady McQueen
Facing a tough, postseason-experienced South Dakota State team that entered the contest on a 21-game winning streak, the Utes often found themselves having to counter an attack from the Jackrabbits.
In the second half, though, Utah found ways to pull away, starting with a dominant third quarter when it outscored South Dakota State 26-17 to recapture the momentum.
“We talked about at halftime just throwing the first punch. Coach said once you get to the NCAA Tournament, no game is easy. Whether you’re the higher seed or not, everybody is going to keep playing until that final buzzer goes off,” McQueen said.
“So it was throwing the first punch and getting back to Utah basketball. I think that second quarter we got away from what we’re good at, so it was just getting that back on track, and that just makes things easy for us on offense.”
For everything that went right to start the game in the first quarter, it was a polar opposite in the second.
McQueen hit a 3 at the first-quarter buzzer to give the Utes a 20-3 lead as South Dakota State shot just 1 of 12 (8.3%) in the first stanza.
At one point, Utah (23-10) led 12-1 and it took five and a half minutes for South Dakota State to make its first field goal.
Then the Jackrabbits flipped the script, as they outscored Utah 21-7 in the second quarter.
The Utes pushed their lead to 27-7 with 7:18 until intermission on a Pili bucket, but South Dakota State scored the final 17 points of the first half to make it a three-point game at halftime.
Utah missed its final seven shot attempts of the first half.
That included a wild final minute of the half when Roberts was called for a technical, protesting a play in which Maty Wilke was called for a foul.
The Jackrabbits got four free throws and the ball out of that exchange and made three to turn it into a 27-24 game.
“At halftime it wasn’t like we were screaming and yelling or anything,” Roberts said. “It was just like, guys, let’s just — we have to move the ball. Our offense is predicated on pace and space and tempo, and we just kind of got away from that, and so it’s like let’s go back to what we talked about and what we prepared for and made a couple of adjustments with what they were doing defensively.”
That set the stage for the second half.
While Pili and McQueen had gotten off to strong starts, they upped their level offensively.
Pili finally snapped a nearly 10-minute scoreless stretch for Utah with a layup just under two minutes into the second half, and she added a 3-pointer as part of an 11-1 run that pushed the Utes ahead by 13 midway through the third.
Still, the Jackrabbits (27-6) stuck around and trimmed their deficit to nine early in the final period on a Madison Mathiowetz 3-pointer.
“They play very hard, and like Coach was saying, we threw punches and they weren’t going away,” Pili said of South Dakota State. “They didn’t hang their heads or anything. They just kept coming back.”
McQueen and Pili had a quick answer, though, and with a little 5-0 spurt, the Utes finally put a grind-it-out game away.
First, McQueen confidently knocked down a 3-pointer on Utah’s ensuing possession after the Jackrabbits 3, making it a 12-point game.
Following an empty possession for South Dakota State, McQueen threw inside to Pili for a layup that made it a 60-46 game with six minutes to play.
“They’re hard to stop. They have a lot of weapons, and they made some really big shots that we just couldn’t match up with,” South Dakota State coach Aaron Johnston said of the Utes.
Pili’s final 3-pointer of the night, one that banked off the glass, extended that lead to 67-51 and drew one of the loudest cheers of the night from the crowd.
“She called it,” Roberts said.
“Bank was open,” Pili added.
Pili finished with a game-high 26 points to go with seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. Even while facing a swarming defense, she made 11 of 20 shots and knocked down three 3-pointers.
McQueen, meanwhile, made 7 of 11 shots, including 3 of 7 from 3, to account for 17 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals. Behind her veteran savvy, the Utes shot 47.4% on the night.
“I thought Kennady McQueen was phenomenal tonight. Six assists, no turnovers, 17 points. Just tremendous,” Roberts said.
“And Alissa, you know, it’s hard. The amount of pressure she has, not just off the court, which there is that, too, but the way she gets swarmed and the physical and all of that, she garners so much attention, and she handles it, so she had a good game.”
Recapping the night would be remiss without talking about Utah’s defense, which held the Jackrabbits to 32.7% shooting.
Johnson, who contributed across the board with eight points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocks, set the tone defensively for Utah, as she drew the assignment primarily of slowing down South Dakota State’s best player, Brooklyn Meyer.
Meyer ended up with 13 points, but she turned the ball over nine times and shot just 4 of 9 from the field.
Johnson also got Meyer into early foul trouble, as Meyer picked up two offensive fouls in the game’s first three minutes as Johnson took a pair of charges.
“She has a knack for sliding her feet, getting in front and taking the hit,” Roberts said of Johnson. “And that was big. I think Meyer got her second foul like seven minutes to go in the first quarter, and so, you know, that’s happened to us with Pili before, and it kind of makes your whole offense — you kind of hiccup a little bit when your leading scorer, inside presence is out for that amount of time.
“But that is a skill, and it’s a talent, and it is such a value add to a team. And it doesn’t really show up in the stats, and it’s huge, a huge component to winning.”
While South Dakota State found ways to fight back behind big nights from players like Tori Nelson, who led three Jackrabbits in double-figures with 14 points, Meyer’s early foul trouble got South Dakota State out of rhythm to start the game.
“Brooklyn’s two fouls didn’t help. That was, to me, the big part of it. We just run so much through her,” Johnston said.
With the win, Utah will face host and No. 4 seed Gonzaga on Monday (8:30 p.m. MDT), with the winner advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.
Saturday night, the Utes were just happy to still have another game to prepare for.
“Overall great team win,” Roberts said. “It’s not easy, and I’m happy to be moving on.”