Utah Utes women's basketball: Utes survive test from TCU

Utah just isn't accustomed to tasting defeat in regular season Mountain West Conference games. Kalee Whipple wasn't about to let TCU spoil that trend.

Whipple scored 21 points and collected 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season and rallied the Utes from a large deficit for a 73-63 victory over the Horned Frogs on Wednesday night at the Huntsman Center.

The win extended Utah's regular season MWC winning streak to 24 games. This may have been one of the hardest yet.

"I hope we saw the best of TCU because that was good and that was tough," Elliott said. "It was good to get that one. Hopefully we can make a few more adjustments and be a little more effective ourselves."

Whipple helped rally Utah from a 37-26 deficit after rediscovering her shot. She and Morgan Warburton — the team's usual sharpshooters — both suffered through a miserable first half where they shot a combined 3-of-14. But it didn't stop the senior from coming out firing after halftime.

She hit one 3-pointer to touch off a 20-4 run that put Utah back in front at 46-41 with 11:20 left in the second half. Whipple converted a three-point play to tie the game at 41-41 and hit another 3-pointer to give the Utes their first lead in a 21-minute span.

Her outburst on offense reflected the team's increased aggressiveness after halftime.

"We pushed the ball in the second half," Elliott said. "We got some things by pushing the ball that we didn't get in the first half."

TCU overtook Utah in the first half by applying pressure and breaking up several passes. The Horned Frogs forced 10 turnovers and held the Utes to 36.7 percent shooting from the field and 14.3 percent from the three-point line.

On the other end of the court, TCU could not miss from outside. The Horned Frogs hit all seven 3-pointers they attempted in the first half. It helped TCU nearly pull away from Utah.

Helena Sverrisdottir drained a three-pointer to make it 27-23 after the Utes used an 11-2 run to pull within one. Then Rachel Rentschler followed with back-to-back three-point shots to boost the Horned Frog lead to 33-23 with 1:21 remaining before halftime.

Getting back into the game came down to taking care of the ball.