On a night when the Utah women’s basketball program hoped to celebrate Lynne Roberts’ 300th career victory, the Ute coach spent a portion of the first half with her hands covering her face in disbelief and disgust.
The Utes responded by surging from 15 points down to lead Providence briefly, before fading in the fourth quarter of a 67-60 loss Monday at the Huntsman Center.
As poorly the Utes (6-4) played in the first half — Roberts used some form of “embarrassing” three times in her opening statement of the postgame news conference — they showed signs of salvaging a memorable victory and extending their six-game winning streak. Freshman forward Lola Pendande’s layup gave Utah a 50-49 lead early in fourth quarter, and Roberts thought, “OK, here we go. We’re going to win this thing.”
But then they missed eight straight shots and the Friars, ranked No. 2 nationally in 3-point shooting, hit two long shots to launch a 12-0 run. Providence went 9 of 18 from 3-point range. Sophomore post player Mary Baskerville had scored 16 of her 17 points by halftime, when the Friars led 41-26.
Pendande finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds and freshman guard Brynna Maxwell added 13 points for Utah. Those two combined for 12-of-22 shooting. The rest of the team went 9 of 42. Maxwell was 3 of 6 on 3-pointers; until Dru Gylten hit one in the final three seconds, the other Utes were 0 for 16.
Providence (8-1) may exceed expectations after being picked ninth in the 10-team Big East, but Roberts wanted more from her own team.
“I was embarrassed with how we competed in the first half,” said Roberts, whose record is 299-233 in 18 seasons at Chico State, Pacific and Utah. “It was embarrassing. And I challenged ’em at halftime just to play with some fight, regardless of [the] outcome. I’m not going to coach players that don’t fight.”
The Utes quickly tied the game with a 17-2 run, thanks partly to Baskerville’s being sidelined by two quick fouls in the third quarter. They finally took the lead in the fourth period, but a lack of bench scoring prevented them from finishing any better.
