Utah falls to red-hot Texas in NCAA Tournament. Gig Harbor grad Brynna Maxwell reflects.

Editor’s note: Gig Harbor High School graduate Brynna Maxwell, who was The News Tribune’s All-Area girls basketball player of the year in 2019, is now in her third season at Utah, and playing in in the NCAA Tournament for the first time with the No. 7 seed Utes. Follow along as she chronicles Utah’s run in this tournament journal exclusive to the TNT.

Our Cinderella run ended (a lot) sooner than anyone on the team would have hoped. After winning our opening round game against Arkansas, we faced the No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns. We had a great game plan against Texas and the entire team was confident.

However, Texas came to play too. They shot over 75% from the field in the first half and 68% for the entire game. No matter who you are, it is hard to lose when you are shooting that well from the floor. Our team hung around though, played with heart and competed the entire game.

Even though the season did not end as we had hoped, looking back I am very proud of my team. This season, our team had one goal in mind: Do things that had never been done before at Utah. We accomplished that this season. We had a 20+ win season. We made it to the Pac-12 tournament finals for the first time in school history. We finished ranked #27 nationally in the NET rankings, and lead the Pac-12 in points, assists, and three pointers made per game.

Utah women’s basketball is now on the national radar, and it is only the tip of the iceberg. Yes, Utah loses some key players, but the majority of the team is full of promising young talent that is ready to take Utah to new heights. I am excited to see where this program can go.

Thank you to all the fans that have been following us and for everyone’s support throughout this season! We love you all!

Go Utes!

This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 10:00 AM.