Utah coach Anthony Levrets joked with a reporter that his matinee with Washington set women's basketball back. Yeah, back to 1975.

It's been nearly four decades since two teams combined for the offensive struggle witnessed by 3,483 at Edmundson Pavilion on Saturday. For Washington, it resulted in a 49-36 loss in overtime.

In January 1975, the Huskies defeated Puget Sound 36-23 for the lowest combined output in UW history.

First-year UW coach Kevin McGuff wasn't as concerned with the offense, though. He repeatedly peppered his postgame speech with words like "ugly" and "frustrating" to describe his team's inability to do two simple things to win against Utah — make a free throw or grab a rebound.

"You're gonna have nights where sometimes you don't make shots and credit Utah, they're a very good defensive team, so that was part of it," said McGuff, whose team was 1 for 7 in overtime. "If they get less shots at the end because we rebound, then they don't have a chance to make a (pivotal) shot ... It was an ugly basketball game. Really ugly."

Leading 31-25 with 6:46 remaining in regulation, the Utes began to click offensively after missing their previous 21 field-goal attempts in an 18-minute span of the second half. The Utes even had more turnovers (12) than made field goals (nine).

But taking advantage of Washington's missed free throws and veteran centers Mackenzie Argens (fouls) and Regina Rogers (hamstring injury) being out of the game late, Utah made four free throws to cut their deficit to 32-29 with 36.8 seconds left in regulation.

Levrets called a timeout to set up a play, but forward Michelle Plouffe had a potential tying three-pointer blocked by UW sophomore Marjorie Heard, and teammate Mercedes Wetmore grabbed the key rebound.

Wetmore missed two free throws after being fouled, giving Levrets another chance to design a tying play out of a timeout. Heard blocked Plouffe, again, but teammate Janita Badon collected the miss and quickly released a three-pointer over UW guard Jazmine Davis to tie the score with four seconds left.

"It didn't look like it was going in to me," said Davis, who scored a team-high 15 points.

The Utes remained hot in overtime, going on a 17-4 run to win their first conference game. Utah made all three of its field goal attempts and was 10 for 12 from the free-throw line.

It's the third consecutive game Utah was challenged after holding a lead at halftime, this time 21-19 against Washington. Known for its defense, the inept shooting kept it from winning matchups against Colorado and at Washington State on Thursday.

"It would have been really easy during that time to fold it back up and they didn't," said Levrets of his team going 0 for 21 early in the second half. "We got a little lucky, making that shot at the end was lucky. But you hold someone to 24 percent shooting in their building and you're going to have a chance to win."

Washington (9-5, 1-3 Pac-12) shot a season-low 24.5 percent and was outrebounded 44-41. Utah (8-6, 1-2) was led by Badon's 16 points and 12 from Plouffe, whose sister, Michelle, is a former UW forward.

"Whenever you lose a game, especially in overtime, on things you can control, it is frustrating," Heard said. "It's a bummer to have to hang your head on that, but we have to get better and not let it happen again."

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com.

On Twitter @JaydaEvans

UTAH
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Wicijowski	36	2-5	5-6	4-10	1	4	9
Plouffe	39	3-11	5-6	2-11	3	3	12
Badon	39	5-12	5-6	2-8	2	3	16
Rodrigues	38	2-16	1-2	0-1	1	1	6
Messer	36	2-4	0-0	0-4	1	3	6
Wilson	15	0-3	0-0	1-1	0	2	0
Bridgewater	13	0-2	0-0	2-4	0	3	0
Sitivi	8	0-1	0-0	0-2	0	1	0
Morris	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
	225	14-54	16-20	11-44	8	20	49

Percentages: FG .259, FT .800. Three-point goals: 5-19 (Plouffe 1-6, Badon 1-2, Rodrigues 1-5, Messer 2-4, Wilson 0-2). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 6 (Wicijowski 2, Plouffe 2, Rodrigues, Morris). Turnovers: 15 (Wicijowski 6, Plouffe 4, Messer 2, Bridgewater 2). Steals: 9 (Wicijowski, Plouffe 4, Badon 4).

WASHINGTON
min		fgm-a	ftm-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Barlow	30	0-2	1-2	0-2	2	0	1
Argens	18	0-5	3-4	2-4	0	5	3
Rogers	26	5-5	0-0	0-8	0	1	10
Wetmore	42	0-8	0-3	0-4	0	0	0
Davis	40	6-17	3-5	1-3	1	0	15
McCn-Smth	7	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	0	0
Anderson	4	0-0	0-0	0-1	0	1	0
Williams	15	0-3	2-2	2-4	1	3	2
Williams	18	1-4	0-0	1-3	0	4	2
Heard	25	1-8	1-2	2-5	0	2	3
	225	13-53	10-18	11-41	5	16	36

Percentages: FG .245, FT .556. Three-point goals: 0-4 (Wetmore 0-1, McCann-Smith 0-1, Williams 0-1, Williams 0-1). Team rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 4 (Rogers, Davis, Heard 2). Turnovers: 16 (Argens 4, Wetmore, Davis 6, Anderson, Heard 4). Steals: 2 (Williams, Heard). Technical fouls: None.

Utah	21	11	17	—	49
Washington	19	13	4	—	36

Attendance: 3,483. Officials: Michael Price, Michol Murray, Bret Gervasoni.