Women of Troy fall to Utes on the road

A little over a week ago, the USC Women of Troy were riding a five-game winning streak, looking like legitimate contenders for the Pac-12 crown.

Just off the mark · Freshman forward Alexyz Vaioletama was held to just four points and seven rebounds against Utah. The Women of Troy shot just under 38 percent for the game and shot only six free throws. - Chris Pham | Daily Trojan

Now they are looking for answers.

After their 55-63 road loss to Utah (10-10, 3-6) on Saturday, the Women of Troy (10-9, 5-4) have lost three consecutive games. USC now sits at fourth in the conference after being in second place earlier this month.

In a game dominated by runs from both teams, the Utes pulled away in the final minute of action to steal what seemed to be a sure USC victory when the Women of Troy began the game with a 17-0 run.

After USC sophomore forward Cassie Harberts’ free throws cut Utah’s late lead to three with 1:08 remaining, the Women of Troy misfired four times while the Utes sank five free throws to put the game out of reach.

To counter a slow first half, Utah scored 42 points on 54 percent shooting in the latter 20 minutes behind forward Michelle Plouffe’s game-high 21 points, which all came in the second half.

“We need to lock down on defense and get out on shooters,” Harberts said. “Plouffe had too many wide open shots, and she was one of the main reasons for their runs.”

After USC pieced together a 9-2 run for a nine-point lead following halftime, Plouffe dropped eight points in two and a half minutes, followed by three consecutive layups by forward Taryn Wicijowski to give Utah a five-point advantage.

The Women of Troy responded with a quick 7-2 run, highlighted by junior forward Christina Marinacci’s four-point play. The teams were deadlocked at 43 apiece with 9:29 remaining, but that was the closest USC would get for the rest of the game.

USC had hoped that a matchup against a team with the weakest record in the conference would help them bounce back from two narrow losses against Oregon State and Colorado in the past week.

“We feel like we need something to get us back up on our feet and to get our identity back, and we thought this game was going to be it,” Harberts said.

For the first nine and a half minutes of the game, it looked like a win was certain. USC held Utah scoreless on 0-for-12 shooting to start the game with an early 17-point lead.

Freshman guard Ariya Crook, who replaced injured senior guard Briana Gilbreath in the starting lineup, scored eight of her career-high 17 points during the run.

“Briana was out, so I had to step up,” Crook said. “I attacked the basket and tried to bring energy to the team.”

Nevertheless, Crook and her teammates could not stop Utah’s rapid turnaround.

Utah guard Iwalani Rodrigues ended her team’s early drought with an and-one layup, which sparked a 16-2 run that cut the Utes’ deficit to three.

The rest of the game featured similar Utah runs that USC’s premier defender Gilbreath could have helped slowed down.

Gilbreath, the team’s leader in blocks and steals per game, sat out with a knee injury sustained in the second half of USC’s 67-69 loss to Colorado last Thursday.

“In the second half, all of our energy just went down. We tried to catch up but it was too late,” Crook said. “We just have to improve on that and keep our energy up the whole game.”

With their two-game road trip wrapped up, the Women of Troy return home to face non-conference opponent UC Santa Barbara (8-11, 3-5) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.