Utah Utes basketball: Ute women outrebounded, fall to Wyoming

SALT LAKE CITY — For the second game in a row, the Utah women lost the rebound battle, and ultimately the game, as the Wyoming Cowgirls (12-4, 3-1 MWC) earned a 55-48 win over the Utes at the Huntsman Center on Saturday afternoon.

After being dominated on the inside in a loss to BYU early last week, the Utes (9-9, 2-2) dropped their second consecutive Mountain West Conference game — simply because they gave Wyoming too many second chances.

"They got 15 offensive rebounds," said Utah interim head coach Anthony Levrets afterward. "It's the same thing that happened down at BYU the other night, it's been the same problem in every game we've lost. (Wyoming) missed 32 shots tonight and got half of them back. We can't win if we don't rebound at the defensive end."

The Cowgirls grabbed 42 rebounds, 15 of them on the offensive end, and scored 14 points on putbacks, led by the strong play of forward Aubrey Vandiver, who recorded a game-high 22 points.

"She doesn't look like she's going to be that good," Levrets said of Vandiver. "But I assured our kids before the game that she was that good; she is just one of those kids who knows how to play."

The fifth-year senior posed a problem for the Ute defense, particularly because she entered the game with more experience than the three players who defended her combined.

Freshmen Michelle Plouffe and Brittany Knighton, as well as sophomore Diana Rolniak, each took turns trying to stop Vandiver.

"Vandiver is a hard matchup for them, and (Plouffe) got two quick fouls and didn't get into a rhythm. That happens sometimes with young kids."

For the first time all season, Plouffe was held scoreless and recorded four rebounds, one assist and one steal in just 22 minutes on the floor.

The Utes struggled on the offensive end of the floor as a team. They had good looks, but their jumpers were short and a handful of layups rolled out as Utah didn't score until Janita Badon hit a 3-pointer seven minutes into the game. Utah then hit another two-minute-long dry spell before Badon found the net again.

"They were physical with everybody. The first play, (Iwalani Rodrigues) couldn't even get to the basket," Badon said of the Wyoming defense. "That set the tone of the game."

The Utes rallied with four 3's and Rolniak added three points on the inside during a four-minute span late in the first half, and they pulled within one point on a Rodrigues layup midway through the second half, but could never completely close the gap.

Badon, Rodrigues and Rolniak scored 14, 13 and 10 points, respectively, to account for all but 11 points of the Utes' total.

Up next for the Utes is a trip to New Mexico on Wednesday and they will return home for the "Power of Pink" game against TCU next Saturday.

e-mail: sthomas@desnews.com