Seattle • Utah’s hopes of advancing past the first round of the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament for the first time in four years were dashed during a cold-shooting second period from which the Utes never recovered.
Kennedy Leonard scored 15 points and Annika Jank added 12 to lift the ninth-seeded Buffaloes to a 66-56 victory over Utah in the opening game of the tournament on Thursday.
The eighth-seeded Utes (17-13, 8-10), who split a pair of conference games with Colorado, trailed 28-21 at the half after being outscored 15-7 in the second quarter when they made just 3 of 14 shots.
“A tough one today,” said Utah coach Lynne Roberts. “No one goes into this thing thinking you’re going to lose, but you have to give Colorado credit. I thought they just played really well. They played better than we did today.”
Tanaeya BoClair had 12 points for the Utes and Tori Williams added 11, but was just 3 of 13 from the field and 2 of 11 from three-point range.All-conference forward Megan Huff, who missed the final two regular season games with an injured ankle, added 9 points and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes.
“When we’re not getting stops on defense and we’re not scoring on offense, I think we get a little frantic and everybody tries to make the home runplay on offense, which just compounds the mistakes,” BoClair said.
Colorado(15-15, 5-13) scored the first nine points of the second quarter for a22-14 lead. On their first five possessions of the period, the Utes missed four shots and turned it over once. BoClair finally snapped the drought with a 3-pointer with 7:16 left in the half to make it 22-17.
The Utes, who committed 10 first-half turnovers, shot just 21.4 percent inthe second quarter, including 1 of 7 beyond the arc. Emily Potter was just 2 of 9 from the field and Williams missed all five of her three-point attempts.
The Buffaloes tacked on the first four points of the third quarter, extending the lead to 32-21 on Zoe Correal’s jumper with 9:18 remaining. The Utes pulled within 40-35 on a 3-pointer by Tilar Clark and a free throw by Huff.
Colorado scored the final six points of the quarter, capped Correal’s short jumper at the buzzer, for a 46-35 lead entering the final period.
“Everyone makes a run and we knew it was coming,” Leonard said. “It was a matterof how we were going to handle it. Luckily, we buckled down and settled in our side of the court and got things done and won.”
The Buffaloes pushed the lead to 62-41 with 3:30 left before the Utes closed with a 15-4 run.
“Offensively we were out of sorts and didn’t make shots we’ve been making and didn’t shoot for percentage,” Roberts said. “Turned it over too much and just didn’t have a great day. We put way too much pressure on our defense to get stops because we weren’t scoring.”
Colorado shot 44.6 percent, including 57.6 percent in the second half, and outscored the Utes 38-18 in the paint. The Buffs also scored 25 point off Utah’s19 turnovers. Colorado also had 12 steals, to just 2 for the Utes.
The Utes managed a 14-13 lead after one quarter, despite going without a field goal over the final 3:33. Colorado failed to capitalize, making just 2 of its final 9 shots of the period.
Starting swing player Daneesha Provo, who missed the Utes’ final three regular season games with an injury, did not play.
Colorado, which split with Utah this season, advances to Friday’s quarterfinals against sixth-ranked Oregon (27-4, 16-2), the No. 1 seed and regular season conference champion.
STORYLINES<br>Utah’s Megan Huff, who missed the final two regular season games with an ankle injury, entered with 2:54 left in the first period. Huff, who averaged a team-high 14.5 points and 7.9 rebounds, had two points in seven minutes in the first half.<br>Forward Emily Potter, who averaged 19.5 points and 11.8 rebounds over the last four games, shooting 58 percent, had a team-high seven rebounds but was just 3 of 10 from the field and finished with nine points.<br>Utah lost its Pac-12 tournament opener for the fourth consecutive season. The Utes are 2-7 overall in the conference tourney.
