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Houston Cougars (4-11, 0-4 Big 12) at Utah Utes (12-3, 3-1 Big 12)
Salt Lake City; Saturday, 3:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Houston visits No. 22 Utah after Kierra Merchant scored 23 points in Houston's 89-75 loss to the BYU Cougars.
The Utes are 8-1 on their home court. Utah ranks 14th in college basketball averaging 10.0 made 3-pointers per game while shooting 37.7% from downtown. Gianna Kneepkens leads the team averaging 2.7 makes while shooting 43.6% from 3-point range.
The Cougars are 0-4 against conference opponents. Houston has a 1-9 record against opponents over .500.
Utah makes 47.3% of its shots from the field this season, which is 5.1 percentage points higher than Houston has allowed to its opponents (42.2%). Houston averages 61.4 points per game, 0.7 more than the 60.7 Utah gives up.
The Utes and Cougars meet Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ines Vieira is averaging 6.6 points, 5.6 assists and 1.9 steals for the Utes.
Laila Blair is shooting 32.2% and averaging 12.1 points for the Cougars.
LAST 10 GAMES: Utes: 8-2, averaging 73.8 points, 31.5 rebounds, 17.3 assists, 6.7 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 46.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.1 points per game.
Cougars: 2-8, averaging 63.1 points, 27.6 rebounds, 10.4 assists, 9.9 steals and 3.5 blocks per game while shooting 36.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.6 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
