Utah Utes women's basketball: Final blow — Record-breaking season ends with loss to Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It wasn't supposed to end this way.

After rolling through Mountain West Conference play with a 16-0 record, a No. 12 national ranking and a team-record 22-game winning streak, the Utah women's basketball team fell upon hard times.

In a span of 11 days, the Utes lost both postseason games they played.

And just like that, their highly successful campaign — the program's best regular season ever, is over.

Done. Finished. Kaput.

The final blow came Sunday — a 66-59 loss to Purdue in the first-round of the NCAA tournament in a game played at Mackey Arena, the Boilermakers' home floor.

"It's hard. We came in with the expectation to win. Everyone plays to win, and that's really what we wanted to do," said senior point guard Leilani Mitchell. "It's not fun. All season we were just kind of waiting for the postseason and then to go 0-2 is frustrating.

"But we played with great effort and we played hard. We still had a great season."

Utah coach Elaine Elliott agreed. In her postgame remarks in the locker room, she thanked her team.

"I had a great, fun time with these players. I thanked them for taking me along on the ride, and that's what you have to remember. That's what you have to talk about," said Elliott. "They earned that memory. They earned that distinction. They've earned that reputation as a team of caliber."

Elliott added the her team's accomplishments shouldn't be diminished by the postseason losses.

"I'm not going to let people talk about the Colorado State game (in the MWC tournament) or this game as some sort of measurement of anything. It just isn't."

The Utes wound up going 27-5 overall.

"You can't take away from what we did this year. We broke some records and we did well in our conference," said Warburton. "It's hard to end it. Especially for the seniors leaving, and it's hard for me to see them go because I had a great year with them as well.

"You can't look at it as a failure," she added. "You look at it as we did well, we did all we could and that's just how it ended."

Despite the disappointing conclusion, Elliott said her team played like champions.

"They had a tremendous year, and they came in here and really competed," she noted. " ... I just said 'thank you.' You can't imagine the fun I had."