UTAH WOMEN EARN TITLE TIE

Utah will enter the Pac-12 Tournament as a champion.

Gianna Kneepkens scored a season-high 28 points to lead the No. 8 Utes to an 84-78 victory over No. 3 Stanford on Saturday. Utah earned a share of their first regular-season Pac-12 Conference title with the win.

Alissa Pili finished with 14 points and Kennedy Mcqueen had 10 points, five rebounds, four assists and six steals for Utah (25-3, 15-3), which shares the conference title with Stanford.

The Utes claimed a share of the Pac-12 crown only two seasons after winning just five total games.

“That’s my job and I’m stubborn,” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said. “I wouldn’t believe that it couldn’t happen. I knew we could do it. I knew it could happen.”

Hannah Jump led Stanford (27-4, 15-3) with 24 points. Cameron Brink had 14 points, 12 rebounds and six assists for the Cardinal, while Haley Jones added nine points and eight rebounds.

Utah led the entire second half, but Stanford pulled within one at 73-72 after Brink and Jones combined to make four straight baskets. Kneepkens knocked down a 3-pointer to keep the Cardinal from erasing the deficit completely.

The Utes then forced three straight turnovers in the final minute to secure the win.

“They were more aggressive, and our turnovers were bad,” Stanford coach Tara Vanderveer said. “Our lack of execution (hurt us). They were the better team.”

Utah built a seven-point lead during the second quarter behind hot shooting from Kneepkens. She scored 12 points in the quarter, culminating in a 3-pointer that put the Utes up 40-33. Kneepkens gave Utah’s offense a spark while Pili sat the final nine minutes of the first half after picking up her third foul.

The Utes made 5 of 7 shots to open the second half and went ahead 52-40 on back-toback baskets from Kneepkens and Issy Palmer.

Second-chance baskets sparked a Stanford rally. The Cardinal scored 11 secondchance points in the third quarter to trim the deficit to a basket, cutting Utah’s lead to 59-57 on a layup from Jones.

The Cardinal never came close enough to go ahead of the Utes after Utah kept getting stops at critical junctures while also taking care of the ball.

“We caught them offguard a little bit with how we were defending,” Roberts said. “Twenty-one turnovers is not normal for them. Conversely, we only had 10. I think that’s where the game was won.”