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SALT LAKE CITY — On the heels of a regular season Pac-12 championship and a program high No. 3 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Utah women's basketball team faltered in the quarterfinal round of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.
The Utes controlled a 4-point halftime lead after a difficult second quarter that featured a nearly six-minute scoring drought from the field, and then the team fell apart in the third quarter.
The seventh-seeded Washington State Cougars got hot in the third quarter, especially late, and went on a 14-0 run over a three-minute period to take a 12-point lead into the final frame. Utah couldn't find the offense, or a way to stop Ula Motuga, who hit three 3-pointers in the second half to lead the Cougars to a 66-58 win over the Utes.
"I congratulate them," Utah head coach Lynne Roberts said. "I thought they played very, very well. I don't think we played particularly well. But, again, you have to credit them for disrupting us like that. But congratulations to them, and I think they deserve to win.
"Tonight wasn't our night."
The shot of the night came after Washington State (21-10, 10-9 Pac-12) got the ball back with 39.3 seconds left in the game and the Cougars controlled a 3-point lead. Utah allowed Washington State to drain the shot clock down to the final seconds before Charlisse Leger-Walker hit a clutch top-of-the-key 3-pointer to ice the game and secure a Cougars victory.
Roberts said the goal was to play good defense, grab a rebound, and quickly call a timeout to set up a potential game-tying 3-pointer on the other end. But Leger-Walker made the bigger play and Utah was too little, too late in its comeback.
"I thought we did a great job defensively; she got a shot with one second left — it was effective. ... I trusted our defense and she hit a great — offense beats great defense; she hit the game-winning shot, and kudos to her," Roberts said. "I trust my team, and we've got five people on the floor that can shoot the three out of the timeout, so I just thought we'd have a good shot there."
It was just another projected NCAA Tournament team from the Pac-12 making the better play in the end.
"We all came in feeling 100% that we were going to beat that team, but they just played better today," said sophomore Gianna Kneepkens, who led Utah with 18 points, three rebounds and two assists. "But our season is not over, so we'll learn from it."
DAGGER 🥊#Pac12WBB | @WSUCougarWBBpic.twitter.com/uCMvxeiY6T
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) March 3, 2023
Utah, which will host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in two weeks, caught the turnover bug in the second half, forced shots at the rim, and then couldn't make the open shots that Washington State occasionally gave the Utes. Utah (25-4, 15-4 Pac-12) finished the night shooting 38% from the field and finished with 15 turnovers — nine of which came in the second half.
Bella Murekatete led the Cougars in its upset victory with 19 points and five rebounds on a night when Washington State shot 54% from the field and 47% from behind the 3-point line. Leger-Walker added 15 points, five assists and three rebounds, and Motuga finished with 13 points and eight rebounds.
Motuga was a force in the post and limited Pac-12 player of the year Alissa Pili to only 11 points and two rebounds.
Though Washington State pulled away in the second half and got the best of Utah in the end, it was the opposite in the first half when the Cougars at one point had eight turnovers that lead to 14 points on the other end for the Utes. The Utes used that to build up a 9-point lead and appeared to be moments away from breaking the game open.
And then Utah couldn't get a shot to fall.
Washington State built up a game-high 14-point lead with just over six minutes left to play in the fourth quarter before Utah made a late push to erase the deficit. Utah went on a 6-0 run and eventually cut the lead to 61-58. That was before Leger-Walker hit her top-of-the-key 3-pointer to seal the Cougars victory.
Utah was without starting point guard Issy Palmer, who suffered a leg injury this week and remains day-to-day, according to Roberts. Palmer was on the bench with the team, but Roberts said the medical stay did not clear her to play before the game.
The Utes now get a two-week break before a first-round matchup at the Huntsman Center in the NCAA Tournament. Utah will find out its opponent on Selection Sunday, which will take place on March 12.
"These guys are competitors, and they're ticked off because we want to win," Roberts said. "And I think competitive people let losses — and when you get knocked down, it's more fuel to the fire. So it's almost, I think, better. We'll have more time to practice. We've got things we can get better at, and I have no doubt that we'll be spitting nails by the time the ball gets thrown up in that first round game."