Utah Tech saw its historic 2022-23 season come to an end on Thursday as the fifth-seeded Trailblazers were defeated by No. 4 seed California Baptist, 81-72, in the quarterfinal round of the 2023 Hercules Tires Western Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament at the Orleans Arena. 
 
Utah Tech finished the season with a 19-12 record, which included a fifth place finish in the WAC standings (10-8), and the program's first-ever NCAA Division I postseason victory. 

How it happened 
Trailing 16-12 heading into the second quarter, Utah Tech opened the period with 10-straight points as part of a 16-5 run, which turned a four-point deficit into a 28-21 Blazer lead after an Averi Papa offensive board and putback.
 
Five different Trailblazers scored to begin the run, while on the defense, the Blazers forced four Lancer turnovers and held CBU to just 2-of-11 from the floor.
 
CBU (18-12), which misfired on its first 15 perimeter jumpers, found its shooting touch as the Lancers hit three 3-pointers, including consecutive treys from Dorcas Wu that trimmed the Blazer lead to 28-27.
 
Taylia Stimpson stopped the Lancer rally with four-straight points, while Emily Isaacson hit a pair of free throws to build the Blazer lead back to seven with seven seconds left in the half. 
 
However CBU guard Tiena Neale pulled up and banked in a 3-pointer right before the horn sounded, and the Trailblazers retreated to the locker room clinging to a 34-30 halftime advantage.
 
CBU began the second half as it ended the first, with a made 3-pointer that again cut the Utah Tech lead to a single point. 
 
Amber Kartchner clapped back with a bucket, and Papa drained a long range jumper to stretch the UT lead to 39-35 with 8:02 to go in the stanza.
 
That Papa field goal would be the last one the Trailblazers would make in the quarter as CBU outscored Utah Tech 20-5 over those final eight minutes to race out to a commanding 55-44 advantage as the game headed to the fourth quarter.
 
California Baptist kept that run going to begin the fourth, scoring six-straight to open up its biggest lead of the game at 61-44 with 7:48 to play.
 
Isaacson finally broke the drought with a 3-pointer, and the two teams would match perimeter field goals, until Stimpson and Kartcher went back-to-back from beyond the arc to pull Utah Tech to within 11 at 70-59 with 4:42 remaining.
 
Stimpson would then cut the Lancer lead to single digits with a steal and lay-in, which capped an 8-0 Blazer spurt that made it a 70-61 game with just over four minutes left.
 
Unfortunately that would be as close as the Trailblazers would get as the Lancers would hit another three and went 5-of-8 from the line the rest of the way to close out the game.
 
Numbers to know
Stimpson led all scorers with a career-high 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting. The senior guard scored 10 of her 20 points in the second quarter, and finished with two rebounds and one steal in her final game.
 
Senior guard Breaunna Gillen closed her storied career with 14 points, which included her becoming the just third player in program history to score 1,100 career points when she laid in the first two points of the game.
 
Gillen wound up scoring in double figures in all 31 Utah Tech games this season, and in 43-straight games overall dating back to last year. 
 
In addition, Gillen just missed recording her second career triple-double as she dished out a game-high nine assists and pulled down eight rebounds. Gillen finished her four-year career with 1,112 points (#3 all-time) and as the all-time career assists leader with 393. 
 
Senior Maggie McCord chipped in 11 points in her final start as a Trailblazer, and Papa notched her second double-double of the year with 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
 
Utah Tech shot 43.1 percent from the floor (25-of-58), and was 10-of-31 (.323) from the perimeter. The 10 made threes marked the 19^th time this season that the Trailblazers had hit at least 10 3-pointers in a game.  
 
Utah Tech's 19 wins this season are the most during the program's current NCAA Division-I transition, and is the highest win total during Head Coach JD Gustin's tenure (18-12 in 2019-20) on the Trailblazer bench. 
 
Chloe Webb paced CBU with 17 points, 13 of which came after halftime, while Lesila Finau hit four fourth-quarter 3-pointers and scored 14 of her 16 points in that period, which doomed the Blazers' hopes of advancing.
 
CBU shot 44.8 percent (30-of-67) in the game and would up 9-of-39 (.231) from beyond the arc.