Gig Harbor grad Brynna Maxwell ready for NCAA Tournament run with Utah Utes
Brynna Maxwell has done this before. At Gig Harbor High School, she took the Tides to new heights, leading the program to its first-ever state championship in her junior year.
She has since swapped those Columbia blue jerseys for the red and white of the Utah Utes, but one thing remains the same: Maxwell is guiding another program into uncharted territory.
Utah, the Pac-12 tournament’s No. 6 seed, made a surprise run to the Pac-12 tournament championship game on March 6, beating No. 11 Cal, No. 3 Washington State and No. 2 Oregon to reach the championship game against top-seeded Stanford. Utah’s win over Oregon in the semifinals was the first time Utah had beaten Oregon since Utah head coach Lynne Roberts took the job in 2015.
“We just took it game by game,” Maxwell said. “In the first game against Cal, that was one of our toughest games. In March, anything can happen, especially in the Pac-12. We weren’t overlooking or scared of any team. Everyone played their game, we played Utah basketball. … It was a surreal week.”
The 80-73 win over Oregon was particularly satisfying for the Utes. Maxwell had six points in the win and freshman guard Gianna Kneepkens was unstoppable, scoring 24 points. The celebration after the final buzzer told the story.
“I was trying to go for a shoulder bump with Gianna and I flew it in a little fast. We collided,” said Maxwell, laughing. “One person poked another in the eye. It wasn’t very graceful, but you could see the joy.”
Maxwell, a junior, has seen the steady progression of Utah’s program in her time with the program. The Utes posted a 5-16 overall record in the 2020-21 season. This year, Utah is 20-11.
“Win or lose, the next day everyone shows up with the same goal of making a run in March,” Maxwell said. “We had a couple bad games where our team could have fallen apart. Everyone just kept locked in, stayed consistent. There’s not one ego on this entire team. Everyone is generally there for the team and to do things Utah has never done before.”
Maxwell has played on a big stage before, in front of thousands of fans in the Tacoma Dome, leading Gig Harbor to a state championship win over Garfield in 2018. In her senior year, she was The News Tribune’s 2019 All-Area player of the year after she rewrote the Gig Harbor record book.
Maxwell scored 1,968 career points and owns most of the program’s records — including points in a season (671 in 2019) and a single-game (48 on Feb. 13 against Hudson’s Bay). She averaged 26.8 points per game, shot 50 percent from the field — including 43 percent from 3-point range — and made 91 percent of her free throws. She also averaged 9 rebounds, 3.9 steals and 3 assists per game.
Now, she’ll get to play on another big stage: the NCAA Tournament. For the first time in her college career, Maxwell and the Utes will be gathered on Selection Sunday, waiting to hear who they’ll be playing in the first round. ESPN has Utah projected as an eight seed. Utah will be one of the schools that ESPN will be recording live as the brackets are revealed.
“It’s going to be stressful,” Maxwell said. “I’ll probably be pacing somewhere.”
Once the Utes take the floor, it’s a safe bet that stress will disappear for Maxwell. In the 2019 3A state championship game against Garfield, she scored 31 points and was perfect from the free throw line. She averaged 27.7 points per game in the tournament. When the lights come on, Maxwell is ready to play, and is cautious not to let the moment feel too big.
“Just remembering it’s just another game,” Maxwell said. “I think of that scene from Hoosiers, with the measuring tape. Just having that mindset of it doesn’t matter how big the stage is. I know our team is going to go in there level-headed, just playing Utah basketball. It’ll come down to execution at the end. The Pac-12 has really prepared us for that.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
