Lady Broncs run out of gas in season-ending loss

OREM, Utah — Texas-Pan American coach Denny Dowling thought his team “finally ran out of gas” Friday afternoon at the Great West Conference Tournament.

The Lady Broncs enjoyed a double-figure lead for most of the game before host Utah Valley turned the game completely around and posted a 72-56 women’s semifinal victory.

Utah Valley (9-22) will play top-seed North Dakota in the championship game at 6 p.m. today. UTPA finishes its season 13-17 after starting 0-8.

The Lady Wolverines closed the game by outscoring the Broncs 43-15 in the final 15 minutes with a dominating 44-24 rebounding advantage and a balanced scoring effort that saw five players reach double figures.

“You look at the schedule and all the travel we’ve had since last Tuesday,” first-year UTPA coach Denny Dowling said. “We haven’t been able to use a lot of bench and when it was time to dig down, there wasn’t anything left.”

UTPA rode point guard Bianca Torre and a defensive effort led by Rose Esther Jean to take a 31-21 halftime lead and a 41-29 advantage on an Aleeya Grigsby basket with 14:49 left. Torre had 15 of her game-high 22 in the first 25 minutes, while Jean’s seven steals triggered the Broncs into forcing 17 Lady Wolverines turnovers.

When the shots stopped falling and the Lady Wolverines cut down their turnovers, momentum swung toward Utah Valley, who took the lead on a Julie Smith 3-pointer that made it 50-49 with 8:45.

Then it got interesting when Downing got ejected with 2:09 left for consecutive technical fouls. The first came when the official misinterpreted Downing telling the Broncs to foul as quickly as possible.

“I feel terrible about that … obviously I’m not trying to get a technical at that time,“ Downing said. “I’m not a jerk, even though it looks like that sometimes. I’m just trying to coach with passion.”

Jean finished with 14 for the Lady Broncs and led the team with seven rebound. Grigsby had 11.

Smith scored 15 of her 20 while Kaycee Mansfield scored all 11 of her 11-14 double-double in the second half to lead the Lady Wolverines comeback. Erika Newbold and Asumi Nakayama each scored 11 and Jenna Johnson 10.

Downing praised his team for coming together as the year progressed.

“I can’t say enough about the players I inherited,” Downing said. “They bought into what we were doing.”