UCLA Women's Basketball: How Utah Made Crucial Adjustments To Beat Bruins

Limiting Utah's best player wasn't enough for UCLA to beat Utah.

The UCLA Bruins were surprisingly upset by Utah in a thrilling overtime game on Monday night, despite controlling Utah's best player, Alissa Pili. Pili, the 2023 Pac-12 Player of the Year, had put up 37 points in Utah's last game before facing UCLA against USC.

With that performance fresh in the mind of UCLA, the Bruins were determined to keep Pili from winning the game. For Utah, this gave their other players the opportunity to shine. 

"Everyone knows how good Alissa is,” Utah guard Kennady McQueen said. “And of course she is going to be the focus of the opposing team. So with that, we just know we have to be ready to step up when nights like tonight happen.”

via Kevin Reynolds of The Salt Lake Tribune.

The Bruins accomplished their mission by limiting Pili. Pili didn't get her first basket until much later in the game, but Utah found other ways to score 94 points. Once Pili got going, she did end up scoring 16 points.

"They were so keyed in on [Pili] that nothing was easy for her,” Utah coach Lynn Roberts said. “So for her to only hit four baskets and us to score 94 points, that tells you what our team is about."

via Reynolds.

Utah certainly showed what the rest of their team can do outside of Pili. McQueen led the team with 21 points, nine rebounds, and four assists, and Ines Vieira and Dasia Young contributed 16 points each. 

Though UCLA came back in the fourth quarter and managed to force the game into overtime, they were outplayed by Utah for much of the game. Even with the Bruins locking up Pili through the beginning, Utah proved they had a lot more depth.

This loss was just the second for the Bruins all season, but a crucial loss to a conference rival. After UCLA moved back up to No. 2 in the rankings following their great win over No. 3 Colorado, they'll likely slip down again following this game.