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Show DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE 8 Wednesday, November 9, 2011 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK NATHAN SWEET/The Daily Utah Chronicle Iwalani Rodrigues drives the ball to the basket during the preliminary game versus Dixie State. With SUU coming to town Sunday, the Utes will rely on returning starters to spark the offense. Utes stabilize before opening game vs. SUU Parker Lee STAFF WRITER The women's basketball team is down to its last few days before the regular season starts Sunday against Southern Utah at 3 p.m. At this point, the team has to make sure its game and strategy are sound, said head coach Anthony Levrets. "In these last four or five practices, we are just trying to solidify the base offense and defense so that we can handle whatever gets thrown at us in these first few games," Levrets said. The defense left something to be desired in the second half of its exhibition game against Dixie State, Levrets said. It held Dixie to 12 percent shooting in the first half, but let it shoot 47 percent in the second half. As the preseason comes to a close, there is room for improvement on the defensive side of the ball, said guard Iwalani Rodrigues. "I think the offense looks really good right now," she said. "The defense is pretty good, but we can always get better with it." Last season, the Utes held their opponents to a field-goal percentage of 36.2, which was third best in the Mountain West Conference. They had the top-scoring defense in the conference, allowing 55.5 points per game. On the other side of the coin, Utah was dead last in scoring, averaging 58.3 points per game. Scoring was an issue a season ago, but Utah is returning three of this past year's top 12 scorers in the MWC, including Rodrigues, Michelle Plouffe and Janita Badon. Rodrigues—who led the conference in 3-point shooting percentage and 3-pointers made—and Plouffe were both second-team allconference players. Badon was an all-conference honorable mention. They are also hoping the return of forward Taryn Wicijowski will kick-start the offense this year. Wicijowski will be a big part of what they do offensively, as evidenced by her performance against Dixie, Levrets said. "She had 18 [points] and 12 [rebounds] and shot 5o percent from the floor, which is a pretty average NATHAN SWEET /The Daily Utah Chronicle Michelle Plouffe gets ready for the start of the season with the preliminary game versus Dixie State. game for her," Levrets said. "That is what we can expect from her on a regular basis." Controlling the ball is another key element of the base that Levrets and his players are implementing. Utah was second to last in turnover margin this past year, with an average of —2.2 per game. They turned the ball over 19 times against Dixie and only forced 13. Levrets said that number is a bit misleading and he is not overly concerned about it. "Of those 19 turnovers, four were charges," Levrets said. "Twelve of the 19 were made by our bigs, which isn't that surprising. I would be a lot more worried if it was our guards turning it over that many times, but Janita [Badon] had five assists and just one turnover, which is pretty good. So we will get those turnovers taken care of." Utah will need to smooth things out quickly. After they host Southern Utah, the Utes have a couple tough road games at Michigan and Arkansas. p.lee@chronicle.utah.edu ED ZONE T Download for FREE. |