Nearly every time down the floor, whether in transition or in the flow of the half-court offense, Kiana Moore would find the left corner and camp out there, waiting patiently for one of her teammates to find her. When they did, Moore rewarded them time after time after time after time after time.
Moore started her first game of the season in place of Daneesha Provo, who was out with a knee injury. But Moore filled in nicely, leading the Utah Utes with 19 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the 3-point line in a 80-64 blowout win over the Arizona Wildcats on a snowy Sunday afternoon.
Moore said she wanted to play well for the rest of her teammates, particularly Provo. The team learned Saturday that Provo tore her ACL and will be out for the season, head coach Lynne Roberts said, adding that she anticipates to start Moore moving forward.
“I want to do good for Daneesha,” Moore said of her mindset before the game. “I want to do good for my team.”
Moore made her first five attempts from the 3-point line, all from the exact same spot — the left corner. Her only miss, also from the left corner, rimmed out.
“My teammates found me in the corner and I just was confident about my shot and knocked it down,” Moore said.
Roberts said that during the morning film session, she could see in Moore’s eyes that she was focused.
“I think she wanted to have her teammates' back and step in and not have it be any dip," Roberts said of Moore, who averaged 5.4 points per game going into Sunday. “She just had a look in her eye of confidence and toughness.”
Senior forward Megan Huff finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Freshman forward Dre’Una Edwards added 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Freshman guard Dru Gylten had 10 points, dished out 10 assists and tallied three rebounds, and freshman forward Andrea Torres contributed 10 points off the bench.
The Utes came into Sunday having lost their first game of the season Friday off a buzzer-beating shot from Arizona State. But Utah went back to its dominating ways against the Wildcats, who never led in the game.
“I just think we were playing a little motivated — probably because of Friday, probably because of Daneesha,” Roberts said.
Utah handed Arizona its first loss of the Pac-12 season and snapped its 11-game winning streak. The Utes went on a 16-6 run the last five minutes of the first quarter to take a 13-point lead. Erika Bean gave the Utes a 20-point lead midway through the second quarter after she jumped the passing lane with a steal and converted a breakaway layup.
Moore missed every two-point attempt except for one. With 5:06 remaining in the game, she crossed over her defender and made a layup through contact.
Wildcats sophomore guard Aari McDonald led all scores with 34 points on 13 of 30 from the field. Sophomore forward Sam Thomas and junior forward Dominique McBryde were the only other Arizona players in double figures with 10 points apiece.
