As Lynne Roberts addressed the media Tuesday morning in anticipation of the biggest home game in the history of her program, she spoke of a potential watershed moment arriving.
Roberts got her wish on Saturday afternoon, and it came at the expense of one of her sport’s perennial gatekeepers.
In front of arguably the best basketball atmosphere the Huntsman Center has hosted this winter, a game-high 28 points from third-year sophomore Gianna Kneepkens and a slew of big-time shot-making from her teammates helped deliver an 84-78 victory.
The win gives the third-ranked Utes (25-3, 15-3 Pac-12) a share of their first Pac-12 regular-season title. No. 3 Stanford (28-4, 15-3 Pac-12) already had secured the top seed for next week’s Pac-12 Tournament.
A triple from Kneepkens with 6:26 to play put Utah up nine, but Stanford kept chipping away. Stanford got to within one, but another Kneepkens 3-pointer, this one from the right wing with 2:12 left put the Utes back up four.
After a defensive stop and with the crowd noise rising, Jenna Johnson drew a foul underneath, then hit one of two free throws for a 77-72 lead at the 1:27 mark.
The Utes went 6-for-8 from the foul line over late to salt the game away. They shot 26-for-33 at the line for the afternoon.
It didn’t take long for a tight first-half whistle to become an overwhelming factor in a game between two teams fighting for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Utah head coach Lynne Roberts rolled with Alisa Pili and her two fouls to open the second quarter, only to have the Pac-12 Player of the Year candidate pick up her third and sit for the remainder of the half with 8:58 left.
Along the way, Issy Palmer and Kesley Rees each picked up three and Jenna Johnson sat with two, while Stanford’s own POY candidate, 6-foot-4 senior Cameron Brink picked up two, as did star guard Haley Jones. In spite of it all, Utah didn’t just survive to get to the halftime locker room, but rather got the better of play.
Up four late in the second quarter thanks in large part to superb free throw shooting, a Kneepkens 3-pointer from the right wing off a second-chance oppoeunity gave the Utes their biggest lead to that point, 40-33.
Kneepkens had 12 first-half points as Utah took a 40-34 lead into halftime despite the foul trouble and shooting just 39.3% from the floor, including 5-for-14 from 3-point range.
The Tribune will update this story
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