Utah wins women’s title
Morgan Warburton hit all 14 of her free-throw attempts and scored 24 points to lead Utah to a 63-58 win over San Diego State in the women’s championship game of the Mountain West Conference at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday afternoon.
Kalee Whipple added 21 points and seven rebounds for the Utes.
San Diego State, which led for most of the second half, got 22 points from Jene Morris.
The other four starters for the Aztecs all had eight points.
Led by Warburton, Utah won the game at the foul line. The team combined to connect on 22 of 28 attempts, while San Diego State went just 3-for-8.
Warburton hit a 3-pointer with about three minutes to play to give the Utes the lead, then found Whipple cutting to the basket as the shot clock expired on the next possession to extend the lead. San Diego State was never able to recover.
That’s a new one
Here’s something you can write only when covering a women’s game.
Jennifer Layton-Bailes was a key contributor for San Diego State in the championship game.
She finished with eight points and seven rebounds after averaging nine and five throughout the season.
Two seasons ago, she was the team’s leading scorer as a junior.
She’s now a senior after sitting out last season, but not because of injury or academic reasons.
She was on maternity leave.
Layton-Bailes gave birth to a son named Jaden, but decided to return to the team for her senior year.
Johnson hurts shoulder
San Diego State star Paris Johnson briefly left the game with a shoulder injury in the first half.
She was able to return to action, but with her upper arm heavily bandaged.
The injury clearly limited her as she got just four points and three rebounds in the second half to finish with eight and eight.
Bad decision
Jene Morris was having an outstanding game for San Diego State before fouling out with 48 seconds remaining.
At the time, the Aztecs trailed by just three points. The foul occurred far from the basket and relatively late in the shot clock.
Not only did it mean Morris would be unavailable to take any key shots in the closing seconds, but it sent Utah star Morgan Warburton to the free-throw line where she is basically automatic.
Warburton knocked down both free throws to extend the lead to five and put the game away.
Storming the court
Much was made of the efforts by the conference last season to prevent fans from rushing on to the court to celebrate a title game victory with their team.
This year, that policy was relaxed and it was believed that fans would indeed be able to come down to the court.
Utah fans took advantage of the opportunity, but storming the court would not be the right phrase to use for what took place.
It was more like drizzling the court. Or partly clouding the court.
The fans walked in an orderly, single-file line through one section and right down to the floor.
Hey, we need that
The Utah players followed tradition and cut down the nets on one side of the court after their victory.
Unfortunately, there is another championship game to be played here in less than an hour.
Luckily, maintenance was on hand and ready to go with a new net.
All-Tournament team
Utah’s Morgan Warburton was named the tournament’s most valuable player. She was joined on the all-tournament team by teammate Kalee Whipple.
San Diego State’s Jene Morris and New Mexico’s Amy Beggin also made the list.
The fifth honoree was UNLV’s Shamela Hampton. The senior closed out her career with an outstanding tournament and became the first UNLV player named to the MWC all-tournament team since Sheena Moore in 2005.
