Utes women bounce back with 37-point win over visiting Golden Bears

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah women's basketball wasted no time building up a big lead against a visiting California team Sunday afternoon.

The two team played to a tie for the first six minutes of the game before the Utes reeled off a 10-1 run to closeout the quarter. Utah then used that momentum to outscore the Golden Bears 29-12 in the second quarter to control a 47-21 lead at the halftime break.

All of that was done without No. 19 Utah making a 3-pointer in the first half; the first for Utah came at the seven minute mark of the third quarter, but by then the lead was nearing 30 points.

Utah held serve the remainder of the second half to earn a 93-56 win over the Bears, while shooting 63% from the field and outscoring California 66-16 in the post.

Utah (12-5, 2-3 Pac-12) handled California (12-5, 2-3 Pac-12) Sunday in a balanced scoring effort by the team, where every player that got minutes scored at least 2 point. More impressive, though, was that Utah did it without relying solely on Alissa Pili.

The Utes had all five starters reach double-digit scoring in a bounce-back effort after tough back-to-back losses.

Utes guard Ines Vieira had active hands Sunday and managed four steals — all of which went for transition layups — and finished with a team-high 19 points, five assists and four rebounds in the win.

Pili had a quiet first half and had only 8 points, but with 2:09 left in the first quarter hit a shot to give her 1,001 points in her time at Utah. She's the fastest player to 1,000 point in Utah history, doing it in 48 games. Pili finished with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists in the win.

Jenna Johnson and Kennady McQueen both finished with 14 points apiece, and Dasia Young added 11 points to round out Utah's top scorers.

The Bears were led by Leilani McIntosh's 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting in 29 minutes of action, and was the only player to finish in double digits for California.

Related topics