Women's Basketball Dismantles Cougars

Mitchell drives Utah past Cougars, tallying a season-high 26 points.

Jan. 19, 2008

PROVO, Utah - Brigham Young unveiled its 2007 conference championship banner tonight, but it was the University of Utah women's basketball team (14-3, 3-0 Mountain West) that looked like the defending champions this evening. The Utes upended the Cougars here in the Marriott Center, 80-49.

The Utes, winners of nine straight now, came out of gates like a Mack truck. They built a 22-0 lead on the home team Cougars (8-7, 2-1) as all five Utah starters combined to score the first 10 points. Utah skunked BYU on defense during its run, limiting BYU to an 0-for-9 shooting performance.

The Cougars finally erased the doughnut off the scoreboard when Coriann Wood hit a trey at the 11:13 mark. At that point, BYU was a woeful 1-for-10 from the field, and they still trailed by 19 points. That was as close as BYU would get the rest of the way.

The Crimson and White didn't let up at all in the first. BYU didn't reach 10 points until 6:10 was left in the frame, but Utah still had a commanding 33-10 lead. The Utes maintained its 20-point spread the rest of the way, taking a comfortable 46-20 lead into the break.

Standout point guard Leliani Mitchell scored 15 points in the first half, finishing with a season- and game-high 26 tonight. Mitchell led the Utes who shot .509 (29-for-57) for the game. She picked apart the Cougar defense, dishing out five assists (to only two turnovers). Mitchell also had two steals.

Mitchell was just one of three players in double-figure scoring numbers for the game. Morgan Warburton's 16 points extended her double-digit scoring streak out to 19 straight games, and Kalee Whipple added 10.

Utah held the 36-30 edge under the boards, and it held BYU to just .346 (18-for-52) shooting. Both Katie King and Warburton had a team-best six rebounds. Mitchell added five caroms to the mix.

The bench provided a spark as well, and it was led by Halie Sawyer's season-high seven points. But, she did more than score, adding three blocks, two assists and four boards to the fray.