Utes women set school record with 21 made 3-pointers in rout over South Carolina State

SALT LAKE CITY — Dust off the record books, Utah women's basketball has a new entry to make.

The team made 21 3-pointers Thursday night — a new school record — en route to a 108-48 win over a visiting South Carolina State team in its first game of the season. Point guard Issy Palmer led all scores with 21 points — all 3-pointers — and finished with six rebounds and six assists in the win.

But Palmer wasn't the only one hot from behind the perimeter Thursday night.

In all, nine different Utah players made at least one 3-pointer on 53 shot attempts, and four players made at least two in a dominant early-season win against an outmatched Bulldogs team.

"They played zone for 40 minutes, and our players are programmed to shoot the three if they're open, and that's — they were obviously clogging it up, and so of those 53, I think they were all pretty good shots, and we're going to take them," Utah head coach Lynne Roberts said. "If that's the shots that we're given, we're going to take them."

Gianna Kneepkens started off the night strong with a made corner 3-pointer on an inbounds pass for the first bucket of the night for either team. Following an Alissa Pili block on the other end, Utah found Kneepkens again alone in the corner for another 3-point make.

And the Utes were off and rolling.

Utah quickly opened up on a 21-3 run before South Carolina State started to settle in and hit a couple buckets to contest the Utes' fiery start. But there wasn't much to stop Utah — defend the 3-point shots and Utah dumped the ball into the paint for overpowering shots from Pili and Jenna Johnson.

Even when Utah went to its second unit, there wasn't much that could be done as Maty Wilke hit a pair of 3-pointers, Dasia Young added one of her own, and Lani White broke the school record with Utah's 20th made 3-pointer of the night.

Utah had 13 players see the floor Thursday night, with 12 of them scoring at least one bucket on a night when the Utes shot 45% from the field and 40% from 3-point range. Utah also finished with 31 assists on 39 made field goals, with three players each with six assists.

Pili finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds in 23 minutes, while Kneepkens added 16 points, six assists and five rebounds, and freshman Reese Ross put up 11 points and six rebounds.

The Bulldogs were led by Cassandra Coln, who had 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting. Taniya McGown added 10 points and two rebounds as the only other player to score in double figures.

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