A recurring theme that has plagued the Utah women’s basketball team this season — poor third quarters — was the case again Thursday, and this time, it ended the Utes’ season.
Utah couldn’t hold onto a 34-29 halftime lead and fell to Eastern Kentucky 72-58 in the first round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament at Baptist Health Arena in Richmond, Kentucky.
Though Utah (19-13) was one of four No. 1 seeds in the 32-team WBIT field, the Utes played at the Colonels’ home court due to a facility conflict at the Huntsman Center.
A critical moment in Thursday’s matchup came with Utah holding a 44-40 lead with just over three minutes to play in the third. Eastern Kentucky’s Althea Kara Angeles grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed 3, and Liz Freihofer capped the second chance with a 3-pointer to make it a one-point game.
That proved to be a catalyst as part of the Colonels’ 13-2 run to end the third quarter, flipping a six-point deficit into a five-point lead going into the final period.
Eastern Kentucky (25-8) held onto the lead throughout the fourth quarter and eventually pushed its advantage out to double-digits with a 10-1 run, making it 63-51 with 4:35 to play, and the Colonels never let Utah seriously challenge to come back.
Eastern Kentucky outscored the Utes 43-24 in the second half.
“I could never put my finger on it this season, but we would have a very nice lead and we’d stop doing the things that got us that lead,” Utah assistant coach Ryan Larsen said in a postgame interview on 700 AM. “And that lead would shrink, and we’d have to go back to pressing a little bit and getting back to, again, the things that we did to get that lead.
“That explanation is kind of a microcosm of what happened tonight.”
Utah looked like it might be headed to victory midway through the second quarter, when Gavin Petersen’s squad built a 28-18 lead despite some early turnover troubles.
The Utes went into halftime shooting 50% from the field and hit a trio of 3-pointers, while Lani White had 17 first-half points.
Utah also held a 24-12 rebounding edge at the break, and Eastern Kentucky shot just 35.3% in the first half.
The Utes looked completely different in the second half, though, as the Colonels outshot them 50% to 29.6% from the field.
Eastern Kentucky made 6 of 13 3-pointers after the half and ended up making 10 of 28 overall, while the Utes were 2 of 14 from long range in the final 20 minutes and hit 5 of 20 in the contest.
“The second half, we really got slow defensively. We weren’t in gaps, they dribbled past us, we got caught in some really bad switches, and they made us pay,” Larsen said.
While Utah won the rebounding battle 43-32, the Colonels turned 15 Utes turnovers into 12 points. Eastern Kentucky had just five turnovers, leading to six Utah points.
White led her team with 19 points in her final game as a Ute, though she was held to two points after halftime. The senior guard also had three rebounds and an assist.
Chyra Evans was the only other Utah player in double-figures. She ended up with a double-double, adding 13 points and 13 rebounds, while also tallying a team-high four assists, two blocks and two steals.
Joseana Vaz led all scorers with 24 points, as she shot 7 of 21 from the floor, made 3 of 9 3-pointers and hit 7 of 10 free throws. She also had eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Eastern Kentucky also got double-figures from Kenleigh Woods (16 points, five assists, two rebounds) and Freihofer (13 points, four rebounds, two assists, two blocks, one steal).
The loss starts the offseason process for Utah, with the next notable date coming when the NCAA transfer portal opens April 6 for women’s basketball and stays open until April 20.
Eastern Kentucky, meanwhile, will take on Harvard in the second round of the WBIT on Sunday. The Crimson beat Navy 73-52 in their first-round matchup.
“It’s a good season. You know, it really was. This is obviously disappointing. The last couple games have been disappointing,” Larsen said. “But I’ll go back to what I said at the beginning of the interview: we had a lot of games where we had leads, and we gave it up and I can’t quite put my finger on that.”