Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Western Colorado (EXHIBITION) on October 27, 2025 at TBD
TBD
Women's Basketball
vs Western Colorado (EXHIBITION)
Friday, March 14
Las Vegas, Nev.
12:00 PM
University of Utah
59
vs
70
BYU (MWC Tournament)
Utah Falls to BYU 70-59
3/14/2003 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 14, 2003
LAS VEGAS - In the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference women's basketball tournament today in Las Vegas, Nev., the Utes fell to in-state rival Brigham Young, 70-59. Utah will now wait until 3 p.m. (MST) Sunday, March 16, to discover its fate during the NCAA Selection Show.
Utah shot 40 percent from the field on the game, including just 24 percent from three-point range. At the same time, the Cougars hit 57 percent of their shots, the highest field goal percentage of the season by a Ute opponent. BYU also out-rebounded Utah 32-23. Utah nabbed a tournament-record 11 steals in the game.
"We had some struggles today - it happens," Head Coach Elaine Elliott said. "This team proved itself night in and night out. We won the conference regular season running away. We came to the tournament and were asked to do it again, but that's a tough thing to do."
Sophomore Shona Thorburn led Utah with 16 points and eight rebounds. Junior Mandie Little added 12 points and sophomore Lana Sitterud finished with 10.
Little, who had reached double figures scoring just three times all season heading into the tournament, totaled double figures in both games while shooting 61 percent from the field.
In the first half, Utah connected on just three if its first 11 shots, while BYU was 5-of-11, allowing the Cougars to take a 12-7 lead. The Cougars built their lead to as many as 11, but the Utes slowly chipped away at it, narrowing it to two late in the half and heading into the locker room down by four.
The Utes shot just 36 percent from the field on the half, connecting on just 10-of-28 shots. Meanwhile, BYU shot 54 percent. Utah was also out-rebounded 17-15.
Utah opened the second half with a 6-0 run to cut the Cougar lead to one, but BYU answered with six straight points to take a seven-point lead (39-32). The Utes again cut it to one with 11:44 left in the game, but BYU outscored Utah 10-2 over the next 2:26 to put the game out of reach for good.
Junior Carley Marshall hit a jumper with 11:19 (42-44) on the clock and the Utes didn't make another field goal until the 1:50 mark, a span of more than nine minutes. BYU senior Erin Thorn scored the Cougars' final 15 points of the game and finished with 30.
UP NEXT:
The NCAA Selection Show will begin at 3 p.m. (MST) on Sunday, March 16. The Utes will watch the show from Rice-Eccles Stadium. "We're now looking toward the NCAA Tournament and want to do our best to represent the conference as well as we can."
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
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