The women’s basketball team will begin its second wave of Western Athletic Conference play on the road at Utah Tech University.
The last time the two teams played was the first game of conference play for the Wildcats. It began with a 27-point first quarter for the ‘Cats before heading into halftime with a 45-37 lead.
The Wildcats made a halftime adjustment that held the Trailblazers to just eight points in the third quarter and 14 total in the second half. The team moved to 1-0 in WAC play with an 81-51 road victory.
Now, as the Wildcats begin round two of conference play, they’ll do so with nearly two weeks of rest after Winter Storm Fern caused a delay and postponement of the Wildcats home battle with Tarleton State University. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, then pushed to Monday, and it is now delayed to a date to be announced.
Head Coach Julie Goodenough said that the delay has caused the team to shift its schedule while allowing for a couple of rest days between games. The Wildcats had their scheduled off-day on Thursday, a day on which the team did not have practice.
“You have to be creative with your time,” Goodenough said. “You’ve got to give the team some days off when your game is so far away.”
With the winter storm staying to the south, the Trailblazers have continued conference play as usual. Having played three of their last four on the road, the Trailblazers enter Thursday’s game on a four-game losing streak and with a 1-7 conference record.
Redshirt Senior Kaylee Borden has led Utah Tech with 14.8 points per game despite the losing skid, while the team has averaged just 62.9 points per game. However, the Trailblazers have held their opponents to score just 67 points per game this season, a mark eight points lower than what the Wildcats averaged offensively this season.
The Wildcats will enter the game with a four-game winning streak despite the extended break. It’s been 24 days since the Wildcats suffered their last loss, a 69-67 nailbiter on the road at Utah Valley University.
Despite the extended delay in gameplay, the Wildcats have taken advantage of their scout team. Made up of 18 male students, Goodenough has bragged on the group all season because of how much of a resource they have been to the team.
“It’s something we’ve utilized since I’ve been here,” Goodenough said. “We get to be more efficient in practice because your team isn’t having to learn someone else’s offense and run it against each other… Our scout team guys are bigger, faster and stronger, which makes our margin for error really, really small. They really challenge us to pay attention to detail.”
Goodenough credited the great Pat Summitt for bringing male students to the women’s team. Summitt was the Lady Vols coach at the University of Tennessee and is known as one of the greatest of all time. She was the first coach to surpass 1,000 career wins, ending her career with 1,098 and eight national championships.
Erin Woodson, junior guard from Richmond, Virginia, enters the game averaging 16.5 points per game while playing 34 minutes a game in conference play. Since the injury to Meredith Mayes, junior center from Bixby, Oklahoma, Natalia Chavez, senior guard from Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, has stepped into the starting lineup, where she has scored in double digits every game and shot 56.25% from three.
The game is set for an 8 p.m. tip in St. George, Utah, and it looks to be the last the Wildcats will play in St. George before moving to the United Athletic Conference next season.
