Calyn Dallas and Breaunna Gillen each posted double-doubles as Utah Tech closed out the 2023-24 regular season with a hard-fought 69-61 home victory over Stephen F. Austin on Saturday afternoon inside the Burns Arena. 
 
With the win, the Trailblazers (18-13/12-8 WAC) clinched a solo fourth place finish in the Western Athletic Conference standings and a probable first-round bye in next week's WAC Tournament. 

How it happened 
Trailing 16-11 with under a minute to play in the first quarter, Utah Tech scored 13-unanswered points to open up a 24-16 lead after a Gillen lay-in with 7:29 to play in the first half.
 
The Trailblazers hit three 3-pointers in the rally, beginning with an Alyson Deaver perimeter bucket just before the first quarter horn. Gillen then opened the second quarter scoring with a jumper, which was followed by consecutive trifectas from Maddie Warren and Maggie McCord.
 
SFA (20-11/14-6 WAC) pulled to within two at 25-23 thanks to a Kyla Deck 3-pointer, but the Blazers tallied nine of the final 14 points of the frame and retreated to the locker room with a 34-28 halftime lead in tow.
 
Utah Tech came out on fire to start the second half, knocking down four more 3-pointers as part of a 15-5 run race out to its biggest lead of the day at 49-33 midway through the third quarter.
 
Dallas, who hit three of her career-high tying five threes in the third period, drained two of those four treys, while McCord and Catelyn Deaver both connected from downtown as the Blazers enjoyed a double-digit cushion.
 
After a Dallas triple made it a 54-39 with just under two minutes to play in the third, the Lady Jacks rattled off a 15-3 spurt to pull to within three at 57-54 with 5:11 remaining.
 
SFA post player Kurstyn Harden, who came into the game as the WAC's leading scorer, poured in the final four points of the third and scored six-straight overall in the run, which ended with a Deck transition bucket.
 
McCord finally ended the Blazer drought with a corner 3-pointer to put Utah Tech back up six, but Harden scored her team's next seven points as the Lady Jacks would close to within one point at 62-61 with 2:39 left.
 
However that would be as close as SFA would get as Dallas launched a 25-footer that hit nothing but net on Utah Tech's ensuing possession.
 
The freshman's dagger trey deflated the Lady Jacks, who did not score a single point the rest of the way, while the Trailblazers' combined to hit 5-of-6 at the foul line in the closing moments en route to their first-ever win against SFA. 
 
Numbers to know
Dallas led three Trailblazers in double figures with a WAC season high 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including a 5-of-6 clip from beyond the arc. The freshman also pulled down 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the year, with nine of those caroms coming on the defensive glass.
 
Meanwhile Gillen came within two assists of recording her third triple-double of the year as she tallied 16 points, along with a game and career-high 13 rebounds and eight assists. 
 
Gillen's 13th and final rebound of the game, which came on SFA's last shot attempt, was also her 600^th-career rebound as she became just the third player in the program's NCAA era to reach the 600-rebound plateau.
 
Gillen (602 FGM), who came into the game as Utah Tech's career leader in made field goals, added six made buckets to her total on Saturday to also surpass the 600 number on that list.
 
McCord wound up with 13 points, thanks to a 4-of-7 effort from the perimeter. In fact, McCord's fourth quarter corner trey was her 200^th made 3-pointer of her storied career, and made her just the second Trailblazer in program history with 200 threes.
 
Utah Tech, which drained 18 3-pointers in last Thursday's win over UTRGV, hit 13 more perimeter jumpers on Saturday (13-of-29; .448), which marked the 100th time in the program's NCAA era that it had hit at least 10 treys in one game.

Utah Tech also broke a school single-season record (322) with its first 3-pointer of the game, which Catelyn Deaver knocked down one minute into the game. 

The Blazers shot 38.2 percent overall (21-of-55) and were 14-of-22 (.636) at the foul line. 
 
The Trailblazers also outrebounded SFA 47-43, and recorded 13 assists on their 21 made field goals.
 
Harden scored 19 of her game-high 24 points in the second half to lead the Lady Jacks offensively, while Deck chipped in 15. SFA went 20-of-70 (.286) from the field and was 7-of-29 (.241) from beyond the arc. 
 
Up next
The 2024 Western Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament will be played next week, March 13-16, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Official tournament seeds and pairings will be announced on Sunday.