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SALT LAKE CITY — If you haven't heard the name Alissa Pili, it's time to get familiar.
The junior forward who transferred to Utah after three seasons at USC was well known by her new head coach Lynne Roberts. Pili was a physical presence in the post and could bully her way into scores around the rim. But she's also deadly from behind the 3-point line, which made her an all-around threat on the court.
"It's nice to be on this side of the fence with her this time," Roberts said Monday night after her team pulled away from the visiting Idaho Vandals for a season-opening 88-63 win at the Huntsman Center. "It was brutal when she wasn't wearing the Utah red."
Pili was exactly what Utah needed down the stretch in its season opener when shots didn't fall for the home team.
Last season's Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Gianna Kneepkens and fellow guard Kennady McQuenn was a combined 1-for-9 from behind the 3-point line and the team shot just 42% from the field. Roberts called their play "uncharacteristic."
Utah led by 11 points at the halftime break, but couldn't seem to pull away from a feisty Idaho team that had an answer for everything the Utes tried to do. And that's when Pili took over. The 6-foot-2 forward had 9 points at the halftime break but finished with a team-high 27 points as she carried the team to a dominant win.
Pili hit shots from deep (she was 2-of-3), worked it into the post and showed her veteran skill against an inferior Idaho team that had no answer for her physicality and shot making. In the end, Pili went 12-of-14 from the field, had seven rebounds and two blocks — none more impressive than a standing swat back near the end of the game against her Idaho counterpart.
"I think I just found my groove again," Pili said. "I felt like the old me out there. It's been a while since I really had a game like that, and it just felt good. Once I got going I just didn't want to stop."
Pili with a STRONG block 💪
— Utah Women's Basketball (@UTAHWBB) November 8, 2022
💻https://t.co/NOrQzZfJ1Y#GoUtes | @alissa_pilipic.twitter.com/S66z3cNfjj
Her new coach couldn't say enough about her performance and what she means to a team hoping to return to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons. Pili was also a key contributor to Utah outrebounding Idaho 60-31 in what Roberts described as a "crushed" performance.
"I thought Alissa was fantastic," Roberts said. "When she gets going like that, there's not much you can do as the opposing team."
And while the end result was a win in Utah's favor, it wasn't the cleanest performance at times, especially in the first quarter when Utah allowed Idaho to hang around and had the game tied up 29-29. It was a moment where Roberts had to push her team to be better to get the result they needed in the first game of the season.
"I don't know if I was worried about their spirits at that point, but I encouraged them to get going, get after it a little bit, just play smarter," Roberts said. "And then at halftime we talked about just settling down; we were just a little frenetic, chaotic, trying to do too much."
Roberts described her team's performance to start as "a little jittery." But the team worked through it and found a way to pull away at the end, and it had newcomer Pili to thank for much of that effort.
"I think you have to give credit to Idaho," Roberts said. "I thought they came in fearless and they were fired up and they were engaged. They weren't just here to play a game and go back to to Idaho. I have a lot of respect for that. I thought they played really, really hard, and they came in you're trying to win."
