Utes record historic win over #2 UCLA, 94-81

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – It was an historic night at the Huntsman Center for the Utah women’s basketball team.

Kennady McQueen scored a season-high 21 points, as the Utes pulled away from #2 UCLA in overtime Monday night, 94-81.

“I’m so incredibly proud of my team’s grit.” said Utah head coach Lynne Roberts. “For UCLA to take the lead with a minute or so left in the 4th, it would have been easy to kind of just fold. In the overtime I thought we were the aggressor. For us to score 94 points against UCLA, who is such a good team, with Alissa not having her best game, that tells you what our team is about.”

The second-ranked Bruins are the highest ranked team Utah has ever beaten. This is also the first time Utah has beaten UCLA three times in a row.

This is Utah’s second straight win over a top-10 team, having also beaten #6 USC last week.

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Alissa Pili, Dasia Young and Matyson Wilke all scored 16 points, as the 16th-ranked Utes outscored UCLA in overtime, 22-9, to pull off one of the biggest regular season wins in school history.

“Normally, it’s Alissa coming up in those huge moments but seeing her struggle, she knows that we’re more than capable,” McQueen said. “She was hyping us all up the entire time. Everyone else just stepped up individually tonight.”

Utah led by six points after the first quarter, and by three at halftime. The Utes then extended its lead to as many as 12 points in the second half before the Bruins rallied.

Down by seven with six minutes to play, UCLA went on a 12-3 run, and took a 72-70 lead with four seconds to play. But after Camryn Brown missed the second of two free throws, Ines Vieira scored on a baseline layup with 1.4 seconds to play to send the game into overtime.

“Ines’s layup — that wasn’t even the play — but she just made a read and it was perfect,” McQueen said.

Vieira then hit a 3-pointer to break a 74-74 tie that gave the Utes the lead for good. After struggling for most of the game, Pili finally made her mark with a rebound putback and two free throws on consecutive possessions to put Utah up 83-76 with 2:01 remaining.

“We were sick of coming up short,” Roberts said. “So we have a bit of an attitude.”

Utah had lost to five ranked teams before breaking through in their last two games against top 10 teams Southern California and UCLA.

“Everyone had their moments today,” Wilke said. “A lot of teams have girls that say, ‘I want mine.’ But it’s just fun when everyone of the team steps up and you love to see other teammates succeed.”

UCLA, which was outrebounded for the first time all season (38-35), never got close after that.

The Utes made 13 of 14 free throws in overtime to secure the victory. Vieira finished with 12 points and a team-high five assists.

Utah made 23 of 24 from the free throw line for the game, and shot 47.4 percent from the field.

The Utes were red hot from three-point land, making 13 of 28 from beyond the arc. Young and Wilke each made four three-balls.

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UCLA was led by Gabriela Jaquez, who scored 21 points for the Bruins. Kiki Rice added 16 and Charisma Osborne had 14 for UCLA (15-2), who lost for just the second time this year.

Utah (14-5, 4-3 Pac-12) will next play at Oregon Friday night in the first of four straight road games at 8:00 p.m.

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