Upcoming Event: Women's Basketball versus Western Colorado (EXHIBITION) on October 27, 2025 at TBD
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Women's Basketball
vs Western Colorado (EXHIBITION)
Saturday, January 5
Salt Lake City, Utah
4:00 PM
University of Utah
70
vs
56
Eastern Michigan
Women's Basketball Wards off Eagles
1/5/2008 12:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 5, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY - When the University of Utah women's basketball team (11-3 overall) opened up a 21-point first-half lead, it looked like the game was in the bag. But Eastern Michigan nearly erased that deficit in the second stanza as the Utes held on for their sixth straight win here in the Huntsman Center tonight, 70-56.
Eastern Michigan (6-6) got the scoring started when Kivilcim Yamanoglu hit a three for the 3-0 lead. However, that would be the only time Utah would trail in the game. Five of the Utes' first six field goals of the game were three-pointers, and that run was powered by the eight-point outburst of Kalee Whipple. At that point, Utah owned the 21-9 lead with 12:07 left.
An 8-0 run late in the first half gave Utah its biggest lead of the game, 35-14, with 4:23 left. EMU responded, though, to end the half on a 6-2 spurt, and it trailed at the break, 37-20.
The Eagles proved to be a second-half team. EMU was scoring at a 2-to-1 clip at the start of the second half. That helped the Eagles trim the 17-point halftime deficit down to 10 points, 43-33, with 14:32 left. But, EMU still had more in the tank. Still down 10, 47-37 with 11:29 left in the game, EMU went on a 13-4 run. That helped the visitors to get back within two of the Utes, 51-49, at the 7:39 mark.
That's when the Eagles ran out of gas. A Morgan Warburton driving layup at the 6:32 mark put Utah on track as it went up four, 53-49. After Warburton's make, Leilani Mitchell put the team on her back and led them to the victory. She scored 12 of the team's last 19 points as Utah finished strong for the 14-point win.
The Utes came out hot, connecting on 54.2 percent of their shots in the first stanza. However, they settled shooting 47.1 percent (24-for-51) for the game. A trio of Utes led the way as Mitchell had a team-best 21 points. She was 4-for-9 from the field (all four makes were threes), but a chunk of he numbers came from the charity stripe. She was 9-for-10 from the line.
Whipple tallied 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and she nearly had a double-double with a game-high nine boards. Warburton was the other double-figure scorer with 15 points.
The home team limited the Eagles to just 32.8 percent (20-for-61) shooting, and Utah owned the 40-32 edge in rebounds. Whipple led the way under the glass, but Warburton had eight boards and Jessica Perry tallied seven. Deanne Stevenson collected four caroms in just 18 minutes of work.
Canea Williams led the way for the Eagles with a game-high 23 points. She was an impressive 7-for-12 from the field, and that included a 5-for-9 effort from behind the arc.
Utah returns to the hardwood on Wednesday, Jan. 9, when it plays at the Air Force Academy. Tipoff in Clune Arena is set for 7 p.m.
Players Mentioned
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