This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
There's a reason why college basketball teams watch film after games. It's so mistakes aren't repeated and positive trends are duplicated.
After losing to Colorado State on Saturday, the Utah women realized that they went 1-for-21 in finishing shots close to the basket. And then the Utes did something about it.
In beating UNLV 71-52 on Tuesday night before 502 at the Huntsman Center, Utah scored 36 points in the paint, winning handily despite making just four 3-pointers.
"I thought we went back to basics in practice," freshman forward Michelle Plouffe said. "We worked on our zone offense, and our man offense, and it paid off tonight."
Plouffe was especially effective against the Rebels, scoring a career-high 30 points and grabbing five rebounds. She led what was Utah's best offensive performance in recent weeks. The Utes scored in the half-court, they got out and scored in transition and they were able to win the rebounding battle as well.
Sophomore Iwalani Rodrigues scored 13 points, while Janita Badon scored 10 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out six assists in 31 minutes. Both guards were able to dictate tempo offensively and disrupt UNLV on defense.
"I was happy with the performance tonight," Utah coach Anthony Levrets said. "I thought we finished out chances inside when we had them. We watched that Colorado State game frame by frame and it was painful. The players took to the challenge and they came out and executed tonight."
At the halfway point of the Mountain West schedule, Utah's 4-4, and 11-11 overall. The Utes received a valuable performance from Stanford transfer Michelle Harrison, who supplemented her six points with 13 rebounds and six assists.
Most of all, the offense looked smooth for the first time in a few weeks.
Defensively, Utah limited the Rebels to 25 percent shooting. Kelli Thompson was the only UNLV player to reach double figures with 18 points. But she went just 4-for-17 from the field in doing so.
Highlights
R Michelle Plouffe scores a career-high 30 points.
• Utah gets 27 points from its bench.