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SALT LAKE CITY — At a timeout break during the first round of the Pac-12 women's basketball tournament at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Utah head coach Lynne Roberts told her team they'd lost the third quarter and needed to play more physical after California took a 1-point lead going into the final quarter.
Her team got the message — and none other than freshman Jenna Johnson down the stretch.
Johnson battled in the post and had a personal 6-0 run to give the Utes a 62-56 lead with 1:45 left to play in regulation. But California didn't make it easy in a fight to advance to the second round and potentially upset the No. 6-seeded team in the tournament.
California cut Utah's lead to two with just under a minute to play after dialing up the pressure as the Utes brought the ball up the court.
Johnson brought the physicality, but Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, as voted on by the conference coaches, Gianna Kneepkens settled the score.
With Utah looking to wear out the clock in the final minute, a Bears double team freed up Kneepkens in the corner for an open 3-point look. With a Cal defender moving on the fly-by block attempt, Kneepkens did a side step and drove to the basket with a crossover to free her way to the rim for an easy left-handed layup and a 4-point lead.
All California could do was foul in hopes of cutting into the deficit.
Utah persevered — even with a pair of late misses from the charity stripe on a night where the team shot only 53% from the free-throw line — and earned a 66-60 victory to advance to the second round against the No. 3-seeded Washington State.
"I'm really proud of our team; it was not easy," Roberts said. "The game was not easy. It was physical as heck. And I thought we just hung in there.
"If we had made our free throws for percentage — we're the No. 1 free-throw shooting team in the conference before tonight — if we made free throws it would have made things a lot easier on ourselves. We did a good job attacking and scoring inside."
Kneepkens, who led the team in scoring in the regular season, finished with a team-high 20 points and five rebounds, with 16 of her points coming in the second half for Utah (18-10, 9-7 Pac-12). Johnson finished with 18 points, three rebounds and three assists in a balanced scoring attack from start to finish from the freshman.
Johnson had a team-high 11 points at the halftime break and was a key catalyst to the Utes staying ahead of the Bears for much of the opening half. Utah added to a 6-point halftime lead that was capped off with a Kneepkens 3-pointer to give the Utes its first double-digit lead of the night with 7:45 left in the third quarter.
"I just tried not to force it," Kneepkens said of her play in the second half. 'My teammates found me on — they gave me good passes, all I had to do was finish it. I'll say I just tried to play the right way. And, yeah, my teammates, credit to them for finding me."
𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓. 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓. 𝐔. 🙌
— Utah Women's Basketball (@UTAHWBB) March 3, 2022
Utah, 66. Cal, 60. @giannakneepkens has a game-high 20 points and we take on the Washington State Cougars tomorrow in the quarterfinals! #GoUtespic.twitter.com/DccvipiLTQ
California (11-13, 2-11 Pac-12) answered and went on a quick 4-0 run, and then beat Utah in the high-low game with several entry passes to the post for easy layups to make it a single-possession game.
And not to be outdone by her freshmen counterparts, California's Jayda Curry, who was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year by the media, hit a floater with seven seconds left in the quarter to give the Bears a 1-point lead and the momentum going into the final frame.
Curry scrapped and scored as she tried to will her team to an upset victory, but her effort was not enough in the end — even as the Bears managed only one turnover and held Utah to one rebound in the third quarter. Curry, who lead the conference in scoring this season, finished with a team-high 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists in the loss.
She was joined in double figures by Ugonne Onyiah's 14 points and eight rebounds and Evelien Lutje Schipholt's 11 points and four rebounds. Onyiah, who had 8 of her 14 points in the second half, was forced to leave the game after an apparent leg cramp with 3:44 left to play.
"Obviously very disappointed," California coach Charmin Smith said. "Utah is a really good team. I give them a lot of credit. They made plays when they needed to. And unfortunate — we wanted to stick around in Vegas — but unfortunately we weren't able to do enough to get the win."
Utah will return to action Thursday (9:30 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Networks) against Washington State in the quarterfinal round of the Pac-12 tournament. Utah won its only meeting against Washington State this season, a 72-66 victory on Feb. 6.
