Breaunna Gillen poured in a career-high 38 points to lead Utah Tech women's basketball to an 88-69 rout of UT Arlington on Saturday afternoon inside the Burns Arena.
With the victory the Trailblazers clinched a Western Athletic Conference tournament berth for the second-straight season and improved to 16-11 overall, 10-6 in WAC play.
How it happened
Gillen scored 22 first-half points, and the Trailblazers needed every one of them as they found themselves deadlocked in a 38-38 draw with the Lady Mavs (14-13/10-7 WAC) at the intermission.
The halftime break did not seem to slow the fifth-year guard down as she six of the Trailblazers' first eight points of the second half as Utah Tech bolted out to a 46-38 lead with two minutes gone in the third quarter.
Maddie Warren got the run started with a pair of free throws, then Gillen chased that with a conventional three-point play and her career-best fourth 3-pointer of the game.
UTA managed to trim the deficit to four at 46-42, only to see Warren answer with a perimeter jumper, which sparked a 13-6 spurt that pushed the Blazer lead to double digits at 59-48 after a
Maggie McCord 3-pointer with four-plus minutes to play in the period.
Utah Tech did not see its advantage dip below 10 points the rest of the way, and would lead by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter before settling for the 19-point decision.
Numbers to know
Gillen finished four assists shy of her third triple-double of the season as she finished with a game-high 10 rebounds and six assists, though she did manage to notch her 11
th career double-double. She also picked off three steals and blocked one shot for good measure.
Gillen connected on 13-of-21 from the floor, which included a 4-of-6 effort from beyond the arc, and went 8-of-9 at the foul line.
Gillen (1,517 pts), who in last Saturday's road win at Seattle U to become Utah Tech's all-time scoring leader in both men's and women's basketball, also passed the 1,500-point plateau on the first of two free throws she hit with 55 seconds to play in the first half.
Gillen's 38 points on Saturday are the most scored by a Trailblazer player in the program's brief NCAA Division I era, and are tied for the third-most in a single game in Utah Tech's four-year history. In addition, her 38 points are the most scored by a player in the WAC this season.
Gillen tied former Trailblazer Haley Holmstead, who tallied 38 points in a home win over Holy Names during the 2013-14 season (2/8/14). Holmstead posted the program's top-five all-time single game scoring marks that season on her way to a single-season record 646 points.
Meanwhile McCord scored all 19 of her points in the second half, hitting on 6-of-12 from the floor after halftime with a pair of 3-pointers and a 5-of-5 clip at the foul line. McCord also came within one carom of her fourth double-double as she grabbed nine boards and dished out one assist.
Warren also stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists and one steal.
All five Trailblazer starters accounted for all 88 points on Saturday.
Calyn Dallas tallied eight points along with a game-high four steals, and
Catelyn Deaver chipped seven points with four rebounds.
Saturday's game marked just the second time in the program's NCAA era (468 games) that a Utah Tech reserve did not score at least one point. The other instance came earlier this season on the road at Stephen F. Austin (1/11/24).
Utah Tech connected on 30-of-65 (.462) from the floor with 11 made 3-pointers (14-of-30, .367). The Blazers also hit on a sizzling 17-of-18 (.944) at the foul line and collected 16 assists on their 30 made field goals.
Avery Brittingham paced three Lady Mavs in double figures with 22 points to go with 10 rebounds. UT Arlington shot 34.2 percent (26-of-73) for the game and was just 4-of-22 (.182) from the perimeter.
Up next
Utah Tech will close out its 2023-24 road slate with its fourth trip to Texas for a pair of games next weekend, starting with a "Leap Day" date at Tarleton on Thursday, Feb. 29.
