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Utah Utes forward Maye Toure (21) passes the ball during a women’s NCAA basketball game between the Utah Utes and the BYU Cougars at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 1, 2025. | Brice Tucker, Deseret News
The Utah women’s basketball team’s brand of basketball — share the ball, find optimal shot attempts, knock down 3s — has been the backbone behind what is now a four-year run of making the NCAA Tournament.
On Friday, the Utes will open the 2025 NCAAs with a game against Indiana (11:30 a.m. MDT, ESPN2) at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina, hoping to win a first-round game for the fourth straight season.
To be able to accomplish that, the Utes are going to need to find their “Utah basketball magic” again.
Over its past five games where the team has gone 2-3, Utah has shot under 30% from 3-point range four times. The Utes have also shot under 40% from the field each of their past three contests.
That likely won’t fly against Indiana, which is making its sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and, like the Utes, is prone to get going offensively.
“I think they’re very physical overall,” Utah forward Maye Toure said Thursday during a pre-game NCAA Tournament press conference. “... We just have to make sure we also stay focused on this and play Utah basketball, and we’ll be just fine.”
The first-round matchup will match up a pair of sharpshooting guards who similarly lead their teams — on Utah’s side, it’s Gianna Kneepkens, and for Indiana, that player is Yarden Garzon.
Both Kneepkens (19.2 points per game) and Garzon (14.5) lead their respective teams in scoring, and both shoot the ball well, particularly from 3.
Kneepkens is ninth nationally in shooting 3-pointers, making 45% from long range, while Garzon makes 41.5% of her shots from 3, 25th-best in the country.
“Both teams have remarkable 3-point shooters, and I’m sure they’re going to try to take away ours as we’re going to try to take away theirs,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said. “It’s just kind of a chess match in that regard.”
Utah is coming off an 11-point loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament two weeks ago, one where the Utes shot just 39.3% from the floor and under 30% from 3. In that game, a disastrous second quarter forced them to play from behind, and Utah could never rally.
The Utes are confident they’ll be able to shake off the recent struggles and have prepped the right way to be prepared for Friday’s matchup.
“We know (Indiana is) a great team. They can shoot the ball well, they move the ball well,” Kneepkens said. “We know what’s ahead of us, but we’re prepared.”
Beyond Kneepkens and Garzon, who both have multiple years of experience playing in the NCAA Tournament, both squads are postseason savvy.
Both teams have a healthy amount of veterans to lean on during the postseason, players who understand the stakes and are familiar with the emotional swings that can happen.
This will be the fourth time that Kneepkens, Jenna Johnson, Kennady McQueen and Ines Vieira will be together in an NCAA Tournament appearance (Kneepkens missed last season’s postseason with an injury).
That group has been a strength to each other throughout their careers.
“I think in those moments that have been hard where maybe we didn’t play our best basketball, I feel like those were times where we came together instead of moving apart,” Kneepkens told WACH Fox sports director Matt Dowell.
On Indiana’s side, Sydney Parrish and Chloe Moore-McNeil also have played in multiple NCAA Tournaments for the Hoosiers, while Tennessee transfer Karoline Striplin played in the NCAAs several times with the Vols.
This will be the first time that this group of NCAA-experienced Hoosiers will play their first-round game on the road, though. Indiana has hosted the first two rounds each of the past four seasons.
“We feel very confident in how we play, how our guards play, everybody on the outside,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said. “It will be important in this tournament as it has been the entire season.”
There’s the chance two players with no prior NCAA Tournament experience could have a big impact.
Toure, a grad transfer from Rhode Island, has started every game in the post for Utah this season and is the team’s second-leading scorer (13.0 points per game) and the Utes’ leading rebounder (6.8 per game).
“I’m very grateful to have people with experience around me that have been here before,” Toure said. “I’ve never been in March Madness, but I feel like we’re prepared, and I trust all of my teammates and the coaching staff.”
Indiana guard Shay Ciezki, who is averaging 11.6 points and 2.8 assists per game, is a Penn State transfer who never made the NCAAs at her previous stop.
“I’m grateful and blessed to be here,” the junior said. “It’s such a surreal moment. When you’re a kid, you dream of playing in March, and the last two seasons, I wasn’t able to get there.”
The Utes have shown plenty of times this season they can play “Utah basketball” — Utah once went on a seven-game winning streak, knocked off Notre Dame in nonconference play and is 22-8 on the season, with multiple late-game heroics that went their way.
Will those Utes come to play Friday?
“Our main focus is our max effort and intensity,” Petersen said. “And if we can sustain that for 40 minutes, the results are the results, and we can be happy with that, as long as we make sure we take care of the things we can control.”
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