University of Utah Student Newspapers--The Chronicle | 2012-01-13 | Page 7

DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Friday, January 13, 2012 7 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Utah must handle 0-rebound against Cal Bears on the road Parker Lee STAFF WRITER MADELINE SMITH/The Daily Utah Chronicle Michelle Plouffe scored 5 points during Thursday's game against Stanford. The Utes lost 62-43. Stanford beats Utes soundly UTAH: 43 STANFORD: 62 D NEXT GAME: UTAH vs. CAL Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Hunstman Center Parker Lee STAFF WRITER Senior forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike showed Utah why she is one of the best women's basketball players in the country as Stanford remained undefeated in conference play, with a 62-43 win on Thursday over Utah. She led all scorers with 18 points and also grabbed 13 rebounds. "Nnemkadi is just unbelievable," Utah forward Taryn Wicijowski said. "You can do the best you can on defense and she can still hit shots. It gets frustrating because she is going to score and there is nothing you can do to stop her." Even more impressive was Ogwumike's defensive effort. Because of her presence, Utah (8-7, 1-3 Par-12) struggled all night to get the ball down low. As a result, the Utes were consistently settling for outside shots. They attempted 20 three-point shots in the game. "They are a very good basketball team with an incredibly special basketball player," Utah coach Anthony Levrets said. "She's talented, but there aren't that many talented players who play that hard all the time." Utah's inability to get the ball into the post was also causing it to take a significant amount of time off the shot clock. On what seemed like almost every possession, the Utes weren't even looking to shoot until there were five seconds left. One possible reason is because of players's injuries. "We have been decimated by injuries," Levrets said. "We had a walk-on and a freshman as our backup posts. Their three was 6 foot 4 inches going up against 5-foot 8-inch Rachel Messer. Right now, we have to play slower and shorten the game, and then make shots at the end." Unfortunately for Utah, few shots were made as time expired. For the second straight game, the Utah shot less than 3o percent from the field. Point guard Janita Badon was just 3-of-13 from the field. Levrets said she had an infected boil, which was causing her a great deal of pain. With backup point guard Cheyenne Wilson out with a torn ACL, Badon had to play in spite of her injury. Wicijowski was the one Utah player who shot efficiently. She was 4-of-8 from the floor and perfect from the free-throw line to finish with 12 points. She also had II rebounds and four blocked shots. Wicijowski said playing a team like Stanford gives them an idea of what it takes to make it to the top. "That was a good judge of where we are now, because that is the best that it gets," Wicijowski said. "We know we have a long way to go to get to that point, but at least we have a measurement." [e-mail] , DAILY UTAH LHRO LE .cam After taking on No. 4 Stanford on Thursday, things will get a little easier for the Utah women's basketball team when it hosted the Cal Bears (11-5, 2-2 Pac-12) on Sunday, but not by much. Although Cal might not be quite as good as Stanford, the Utes know they cannot take the afternoon off. "One of the things we learned from the trip up to Washington State and Washington, maybe more than anything else, is that you have to come to play every single game," said Utah head coach Anthony Levrets. That has been one of the recurring themes of Utah's first season in the Pac-12 throughout the whole athletic department. Levrets and Co. have learned from mistakes and know that life in a major conference can sting if you're not prepared. Point guard Janita Badon said the key for Utah to avoid a letdown is to play the way they practice. "In practice, we play like we can't be beat," Badon said. "I don't know what happens in the game, whether its jitters or what, but we really just need to take our practices onto the game floor." The Utes will need to do just that to beat Cal, which has shown that it is one of the conference's top contenders. Of their five losses, four have been by five points or less, including a threepoint loss at No. 8 Rutgers. The Bears are capable of being an explosive offensive team. In the loss to Rutgers, they nearly overcame a 14-point second-half deficit. In their most recent game against Oregon, they opened the game with a 15-2 run and they scored 54 points in the first half, more than Utah averages in a game (51.4). One key to Cal's explosiveness is rebounding. The team averages 48.8 rebounds per game, and it allows 30.6 per game. That is a positive rebound margin of 18.2, which is the best in the nation. Forward Gennifer Brandon is second in the Pac-12 in rebounding with Ha per game. She also scores 9.3 points per game, which is third on the team. Cal's ability to rebound, especially offensively, is giving it second- and thirdchance scoring opportunities. The Utes need to stay close in the rebound battle to give themselves a chance. If rebounding does become an issue for Utah, however, Badon said hope is not lost. "When things happen, it's not just addressing the problem, but it is addressing how we are going to react to it," Badon said. "How we react is the most important thing." Utah and Cal tip-off at the Huntsman Center on Sunday afternoon at 2:3o p.m. [e-mail] CHAD ZAVALA/The Daily Utah Chronicle Taryn Wicijowski makes a driving layup past Stanford defender Joslyn Tinkle.