Maggie McCord led five Trailblazers in double figures with 24 points on a school-record tying eight 3-pointers to help lead Utah Tech to a 92-86 victory over Oregon in the first game of the 2023 Trailblazer Classic on Tuesday afternoon inside the Burns Arena.
 
The win, Utah Tech's first-ever triumph over a NCAA Division I Power-5 program, moved the Blazers to 7-4 overall, while the Ducks fell to 8-4.   

How it happened 
Utah Tech, which drained 21 3-pointers in the game, had the shooting touch from the get-go. The Blazers knocked down five of their first eight shots, including 3-of-3 from the perimeter, to race out to an early 13-8 advantage.
 
After Oregon pulled to within a point at 16-15 on a Grace VanSlooten jumper, Utah Tech countered with seven-straight points to extend to its biggest lead of the first quarter at 23-15 after a Maddie Warren three-ball.
 
The Ducks clapped back with five-unanswered points, only to have Calyn Dallas counter with a pair of 3-pointers of her own, including the team's seventh trey of the period that beat the quarter horn and spotted the Blazers a 29-24 cushion after the first 10 minutes.
 
Utah Tech torrid shooting pace carried over to the second period, during which the Trailblazers went 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. 
 
Four of those made threes came in 12-0 spurt over a two-plus minute span, with Warren going back-to-back-to-back from downtown. Meanwhile McCord followed with her fourth perimeter jumper of the half as the Blazers turned a four-point lead into a 50-34 advantage with 3:32 to play until halftime.
 
Oregon stopped the run with two Phillipina Kyei free throws, albeit briefly, as Breaunna Gillen poured in Utah Tech's final five points of the half, including a conventional three-point play that capped a 17-4 run as the Blazers retreated to the locker room with a 55-38 halftime lead. 
 
Utah Tech stretched its lead to as many as 18 points after another McCord trey early in the third, and managed to maintain a double-digit for most of the frame despite the Ducks' size and length in their zone defense that managed to slow down the Trailblazer offense.
 
Then coming out of a late media timeout with 2:07 to play in the third, the Ducks closed the period with an 11-1 run to pare Utah Tech's lead down to five at 69-64 heading to the fourth quarter.
 
McCord and Warren got the Trailblazer offense going again with 3-pointers to help push the lead to nine at 75-66. 
 
Oregon would answer with an 11-3 spurt to pull to within a single point at 78-77 after a VanSlooten lay-in with 4:50 remaining.
 
McCord quickly countered with a school-record tying eighth 3-pointer just seven seconds later, only to have VanSlooten again score in the paint to make it an 81-79 game with 4:17 left.
 
However that would be as close as Utah Tech would come to surrendering its lead. And freshman forward Nicole Willardson made sure of that by scoring the Blazers' next eight points, with six of those points on perimeter jumpers, to stake her side with an 89-81 cushion with 2:18 to play. 
 
Then after Oregon got to within three at 89-86, Willardson came up with the defensive play of the game with 18 seconds left as she swatted away a VanSlooten chance in the low blocks. Utah Tech would convert on 3-of-4 at the foul line from there to salt away the home win.
 
Numbers to know
McCord's 8-of-10 effort from the perimeter in Tuesday's win were the most made by a Trailblazer inside the Burns Arena, and matched her previous record-tying performance during the 2021-22 season in a road loss at Seattle U (2/26/22). Former Blazer guard Kaylah Miller was the first Blazer player to hit eight treys in one game nearly 10 full seasons ago on the road at Azusa Pacific (1/20/14). 
 
Warren also became the 13^th-different Trailblazer in the program's NCAA era to hit at least six 3-pointers in a game as she went 6-of-10 from downtown on her way to 21 points. 
 
Not to be outdone, Gillen recorded her second career triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and a season-high 10 assists. Gillen's first triple-double came just over two years ago in the 2021-22 season opener vs. Life Pacific (14p/10r/11a – 11/9/21).
 
Utah Tech's bench outscored Oregon's reserves by a 26-13 count, with Dallas and Willardson combining for all 26 points. Dallas tallied 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting with four 3-pointers, while Willardson wound up with a career-high 12 points to go along with four rebounds. 
 
Utah Tech shot school record-breaking 67.7 percent (21-of-31) from the perimeter, and finished with a 49.3 percent (33-of-67) clip overall for the game. 
 
Meanwhile Utah Tech's 21 made 3-pointers were a season high and one off the school record of 22 set in the 2021-22 season opener vs. Life Pacific (11/9/21).
 
VanSlooten led all scorers with 25 points, 16 of which came after halftime to help the Ducks get back into the game. Oregon shot 47.2 percent (34-of-72) from the floor, 45.5 percent (10-of-22) from beyond the arc.
 
Utah Tech will close out its five-game, pre-Christmas homestand, and its portion of the Trailblazer Classic, on Wednesday afternoon when the Blazers face Big-12 member Oklahoma State at 2 p.m. The Classic will then wrap up on Thursday with Oregon and Oklahoma State squaring off in the Burns Arena at 2 p.m.