Utah ousts top-seeded TCU

Fourth-seeded Utah became the first team to advance to a championship game at the Mountain West Conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Lady Utes did so by defeating top-seeded TCU, 69-57.

Utah led by just five at halftime, but erupted out of the locker room to extend the advantage to 24 points at the 11:00 mark of the second half. TCU used a full-court press to get back into the game, but it was far too late. TCU coach Jeff Mittie said the plan was to press for the entire game, but couldn’t get the defense set because the offense was so out of sync.

“We wanted to turn this into a 40-minute game because maybe their fatigue level,” he said. “We just never got the game into that style early enough.”

Halie Sawyer scored a career-high 24 points and pulled down a career-best equaling 15 rebounds in the victory.

“I think it just went my way tonight,” she said. “I just felt good in warmups and it went through the game. I’m happy about that, I guess.”

Sawyer also shined on the defensive end, where she held Helen Sverrisdottir to just 12 points on 3 of 14 shooting.

“We knew Sverrisdottir was going to come at us,” said Sawyer, who blocked three shots. “She’s a great player. I knew that if I could contain her as much as I could that my team would help me out and they sure did.”

Utah head coach Elaine Elliott said it’s the kind of performance the team has expected from the senior forward.

“We’ve kind of been waiting for this,” she said. “Halie has the capabilities. The way people choose to defend us, because of Taryn’s presence, is not to defend Halie. It’s really can (she) make people pay. She absolutely did so tonight.”

Kalee Whipple added 14 points and eight rebound for Utah, and Iwalani Rodrigues had 13 points and three assists.

The Lady Utes dominated the glass, outrebounding TCU 41-24.

“We didn’t chase the ball very well today,” Mittie said. “To their credit, they kept us off the glass. They kept us out of our offensive flow and if you have a better flow, more rebounds are going to come your way.”

TCU made just 17 of 58 field goal attempts, negating the fact it turned the ball over just eight times compared to 18 for Utah.

Two bids

The win by Utah should mean the league will have more than one entrant in the NCAA tournament on the women’s side.

TCU is a likely at-large selection. The Horned Frogs now stand at 22-8 and were the regular-season champion.

“TCU is a great team and they’re going to be a great representative for this league in the NCAA tournament,“ Elliott said. “We’re trying our best to be another one.”

Utah will now play either San Diego State or BYU in the championship game tomorrow for the automatic bid.

Wicijowski injured

Utah freshman Taryn Wicijowski was injured in the second half when she was hit in the head.

The center had nine points and five rebounds in 29 minutes before departing.

“We wouldn’t let her come back in because she had a headache,” Elliott said. “It’s a concussion problem and you don’t know the severity of that.”

Elliott hopes the doctors held the player out more for precautionary reasons.

“The determination is not ours to make. It’s the doctor’s to make. I hope it’s one of those scenarios where they weren’t going to let her go back because that is not the smart thing to do,” Elliott said. “Our hope is it’s not a graded concussion of some sort so we can have her.”

Rematch

The game was a rematch of one of the best games in the country this season.

Utah at TCU played a four-overtime thriller in Salt Lake City last month.

The game is best remembered in Las Vegas for airing on television before the showdown between UNLV and New Mexico and shutting viewers out from seeing the entire first half of that game.