Utah gives its seniors a proper sendoff with dominant win over Arizona

It didn’t take long for the Utah women’s basketball team, on Senior Day, to get itself a commanding lead.

Just four and a half minutes into their contest against the Arizona Wildcats, the Utes were up 15-2 at the Huntsman Center on Saturday.

Utah made its first five shots and 7 of 10, and that set the tone as the Utes cruised to an eventual 81-67 victory over the Wildcats.

“We had a great first quarter, great third quarter and then you know, at the fourth quarter, it’s kind of things got out of hand and I think we just kind of let our guard down a little bit, and that’s part of it,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said.

(I’m) just glad we could send these guys out on Senior Night with a win, so now we await tomorrow. We’ll be scoreboard watching and learning our fate in Kansas City (for the Big 12 tournament), so just extremely proud of our program and where it sits right now."

Saturday was an appropriate sendoff for Utah’s seniors, as starters Lani White and Maty Wilke led the Utes in the win, while the program also honored Samantha Crispe and Alyssa Blank.

White ended up scoring a team-high 19 points, including four 3-pointers, while adding five rebounds and two assists.

Wilke, meanwhile, tossed in 12 points and added five steals, three rebounds and three assists in front of an appreciative crowd.

Both White and Wilke have had their ups and downs throughout their college careers — including a transfer for both of them at one point — before shining as the program’s leaders as seniors.

The pair shared what the emotions of Saturday’s contest meant to them.

“(I’ll) try not to get emotional, but it just, it means so much. I had a rough first two years and I’m ever so grateful to have the opportunity to come back and, you know, have a coaching staff and a head coach that just believes in me so much,” said White, who played two seasons at Utah, then transferred to Virginia Tech last year and came back to the Utes for her senior season.

“And I think playing for this team and playing for this staff, it means the world because not every team has a family. I played for this sisterhood and it’s just unbelievable. I couldn’t have asked for a better year. Really happy to end it with this group.”

Wilke, meanwhile, played two seasons at Wisconsin before transferring to Utah and enjoying her best season, like White, as a senior.

“Before coming here, I was in a really dark place and I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to keep playing basketball, but the coaching staff and the girls that were here took me in and gave me another opportunity to play the game and to find that joy again, and I’m forever grateful for Gavin, the staff and my teammates for allowing me to have another chance at college basketball,” Wilke said.

“And like Gavin said, it’s not only like the points and wins or losses, but for me, it’s all the relationships I’ve been able to build since being here.”

She continued: “Oh gosh, it’s really weird to think about not wearing this jersey with them after. I mean, we still have games left, so I’m still (not) done, but it’s just crazy to think about coming in here and now they’ve really helped me grow everyone here, and like I said, just helped me find my light again, not only on the court, but in life, and I’m just extremely grateful for this program.”

When Utah got off to that strong start in Saturday’s game, it was a trio of non-seniors — LA Sneed, Chrya Evans and Reese Ross — who scored the Utes’ first 17 points.

Then Wilke and White scored their first points on back-to-back possessions — Wilke on a 3-pointer, White on a fast break layup — to give Utah a 22-7 lead.

“Once you see the ball go in the hole like at any time in the game, it kind of just (the) pressure goes down and everyone’s feeling it. Like I can do my role, I don’t have to overdo (things),” Wilke said.

“... It felt very balanced in the beginning of the game and everyone was scoring, everyone was doing their part, and so it was just extremely fun, too.”

Eventually, Arizona (12-17, 3-15 Big 12) trimmed its deficit to 32-27 near the midway point of the second quarter, but Utah had an answer.

Over the final 5:27 of the second period, Utah (19-11, 10-8 Big 12) outscored the visitors 15-7 to take a 47-34 lead into halftime.

Then, the Utes landed the knockout punch by outscoring the Wildcats 24-13 in the third quarter.

That helped push the Utah lead as high as 26 points.

White scored 11 of her points in the third, while Wilke had five points in each of the first and third quarters.

That left Utah with the chance to coast into the win, and allowed fellow seniors Crispe and Blanck to get on the court late as well.

White and Wilke led a balanced effort, while Ross (16 points, six rebounds, two assists) and Sneed (11 points, five rebounds, two rebounds, one steal) also scored in double figures.

All totaled, six Utes scored six or more points in the regular-season finale.

“The focus and the intensity from our offensive execution, it was really on for the majority of the night. A lot of good cutting to the baskets, utilizing our spacing and cuts, moving the basketball. That’s why the stat sheet gets filled up by everybody,” Petersen said.

“... Our off-ball movement was really good. A few times we got trapped and threw the ball away. That’s to be expected, but for the most part, just really proud of our poise and our fundamentally sound pivoting and getting the ball out of those traps, and I think that’s what led us to those open 3s as well.”

It was a kind of night that defined Utah basketball — the Utes had 15 assists on 18 made buckets in the first half, and they finished with 23 assists on 28 made field goals by game’s end.

Utah also made 11 of 25 3-pointers, with White’s four 3s leading the way. Wilke and Brooke Walker also hit two each.

“I think we have a great confidence in ourselves and in one another, and all week we were saying that we knew that the 3 was going to be there for us,” White said.

“But Arizona did a great job pressuring us, so for us, we attacked it and that inside-out 3 works in our favor usually. I did not know that we made that many, but dang, I’m happy for us. We haven’t had a night like that in a long time, so that’s super awesome.”

Utah dominated the paint, outscoring Arizona 34-18 in the post, while also owning a 33-27 rebounding edge.

The Wildcats, who were without leading scorer Mickayla Perdue, were paced by 31 points from Sumayah Sugapong, and Noelani Cornfield added 20.

The story of the night for Utah, though, was honoring its seniors. With White and Wilke on either side of him in the postgame press conference, Petersen shared his gratitude for leading the program alongside this group of four seniors.

“I am just extremely proud of like our program, our team, surrounded by these guys (White and Wilke), and then obviously AB and Sam. Like, just tremendous people,” Petersen said.

“And that’s what I am so proud of. These guys are going to be in my life for the rest of my life, and that’s something that doesn’t show up in stat sheets or win columns. ... I’m passionate about what I do, but the relationships that we build are genuine, authentic, and I’m just so proud of everybody showing up tonight, giving it their best.”

Now, the Utes will play the waiting game.

The Big 12 regular season wraps up Sunday with five more games, and after that, Utah will learn what seed it receives in next week’s Big 12 tournament.

With the win, the Utes assured themselves they will have at least the No. 9 seed, and could earn as high as the No. 7.

If Utah is either the No. 7 or No. 8 seed, it will have a first-round bye at the Big 12 tournament, which starts next Wednesday at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.

The key game to watch Sunday is Arizona State vs. No. 20 Texas Tech (1 p.m. MST, ESPN+). If Arizona State loses, Utah will earn a first-round bye.

“(We’ll have) tomorrow off, we’ll get just rested, collect ourselves and then scoreboard watch, and then our staff will meet,” Petersen said. “We’ll get our game plan and everything pretty dialed in quickly, and then we’ll have practice Monday.”