Box Score CEDAR CITY, Utah - The Thunderbird women's basketball team hosted the Utah Valley Wolverines and elementary students from the Iron County School District for an afternoon matinee Tuesday. The T-Birds finished strong, but were not able to overcome first-quarter scoring woes as they dropped their fourth game in a row, 70-64.
“It took our kids a quarter to wake up and compete at the level that we needed to and unfortunately that put us too far behind to come back,” head coach Chris Boettcher said after the game. “Utah Valley played a zone that we haven't played against all year so us adapting to our zone offense for the first time against it, shook things up a little bit. I'm proud of how they fought in that second half to come back.”
The Wolverines came out firing shooting 64 percent and putting up 21 points in the first quarter. While the Wolverines were having their best quarter of the afternoon, the Thunderbirds were having their worst, shooting just 1-8 from the field. However, senior Jessica Richardson and sophomore Darri Frandsen were able to combine for a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line to give the T-Birds a total of eight points in the first.
Down 21-8 at the end of the first, the Thunderbirds turned things around in the second outscoring the Wolverines 18-14 and cutting their lead down to just nine. Richardson finished with seven points, three total rebounds, and a steal in the first half. Sophomore Breanu Reid and junior Whitney Johnson each finished with six points as the first half came to a close with the Thunderbirds trailing 35-26.
Things remained pretty steady in the third quarter as the teams traded buckets and the Wolverines just barely outscored the Thunderbirds 15-14. The fourth quarter is where things got interesting as the Thunderbirds were able to cut the Wolverine lead down to just four with three minutes left to play. The teams traded buckets, fouls, and timeouts trying to get a leg up on each other, but the Wolverines were able to maintain their lead and the game ended with a 70-64 lead in favor of Utah Valley.
Even though the team is in the midst of a losing streak, Boettcher had only good things to say about his team:
“That's what I love about this team. They are competitors and they want to fight to the end. They expend so much energy fighting back that sometimes we gave up easy shots when we shouldn't have. However, I knew at halftime, looking into their eyes, that we weren't going to get blown out.”
Freshman Rebecca Cardenas lead the scoring for the Thunderbirds Tuesday with 14 points and seven assists. She also had three rebounds and three steals on the afternoon. Breanu Reid was right behind her with 13 points, shooting 3-4 from the three-point line.
The next game for the Lady T-Birds will be on Saturday in Corvallis, Oregon against No.24 Oregon State.
To stay up to date during the games and throughout the 2016-17 season follow @SUUWBasketball on Twitter and Instagram and like the SUU Women's Basketball page on Facebook.
