UTAH TECH UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE | February 16, 2025

Home court energy fuels Trailblazers’ conference victory

The Utah Tech women’s basketball team faced off against the Utah Valley University Jan. 18 in the Burn’s Arena. The Trailblazers were ultimately defeated with a final score of 46-62. Brenna Quinones | Sun News Daily

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Bright lights, loud music and an electric, energetic buzz filled the Burns Arena Jan. 16 as fans gathered to watch the Utah Tech University women’s basketball team take on the Redhawks from Seattle University.

The Trailblazers were on the hunt for their first win of 2025 and their first conference win after coming off of a seven-game losing streak, which began with an away loss to the Rice University Owls Dec. 4.

However, it seems that there is no place like home as they defended the Burns with an 80-70 win, which included an impressive 27 points scored in the first quarter.

The team was backed by the Stampede student section, the band, the cheer team and Utah Tech’s very own Blaze dance team. The smell of popcorn from the concession stand permeated the air as the announcer’s voice boomed over the speakers to welcome the starting five from each team onto the floor. 

“I just love it, honestly,” Allison Park, a junior marketing major from Bluffdale, said when asked about the atmosphere in the arena. “I think one of my favorite parts of the Burns is the band. They always bring such high energy… and the Burns Arena in general is just so iconic.”

Park also serves as the social media manager for Stampede, and she plays a role in promoting the games on the Stampede’s social media pages. 

Brooklin Cattoor, a senior accounting major from Douglas, Wyoming, said she enjoys coming to the games because it’s an easy, free activity for her and other students. 

“I think [the arena] can be pretty electric depending on the amount of people that are there,” Cattoor said. “The announcers do a great job of keeping the energy high and the crowd gets really involved, especially in tight games.”

This game was tight for a moment, but the Trailblazers were able to hold off the Redhawks to secure the win. Freshman guard, Ellie Taylor, a freshman elementary education major from West Jordan, put up 18 points, nine rebounds and six steals, and Emily Isaacson, a master’s student in recreation and sports management from Perry, scored her 1,000th career point in the third quarter.

Another key player in the rotation is Aaliyah Ibarra, a junior psychology major from Las Vegas. She is a junior college transfer who played her first two years of college basketball for the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas.

“The level is definitely way more competitive,” Ibarra said when asked about the differences between Division I and Juco. “[Division] I has definitely taught me patience on and off the court.”

Ibarra tallied three 3-pointers in the team’s win, and she had a slightly different perspective on being able to play in the Burns. She said it was beneficial to the team to be practicing on the same court that they play games in, and that the team’s focus on energy helped them on game day. 

“Game day prep for us is all about energy and having fun,” Ibarra said. “I think it’s really easy to get caught up and worried about it, but when we have fun and we’re just, you know, doing what we know how to do… everything just works out for us and energy is really big for us.”

The team is in the thick of conference play, and the trek to the Western Athletic Conference tournament in Las Vegas is in full swing. The remaining schedule can be found here.