Alissa Pili
Point Pili made an appearance today for the nationally ranked Utah women’s basketball team as Anchorage’s Alissa Pili dished off a career-high six assists in a 100-92 victory over Oregon in the Pac-12 Conference.
The 6-foot junior forward also pumped in 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting to go with seven rebounds in arguably her greatest performance as a college player. And that’s saying something for a 3-time All-Pac-12 playmaker and former Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.
This was her highest scoring performance in nearly three years as she flirted with her career high of 32 points set Feb. 23, 2020, against Washington State. This was also the first time she hit three 3-pointers in a game since Feb. 19, 2021, against Oregon State.
Pili was on target from the jump, having a hand in her team’s first 10 points after knocking down three straight field goals and then assisting on a 3-pointer. In the second quarter, she drilled a 3 to give Utah a 42-39 lead.
Her previous high for assists was five set earlier this season. She never had more than four assists in 63 career games at USC before transferring to Utah. Today, Pili furnished four assists in the third quarter alone, including a beautiful bounce pass to Gianna Kneepkens for a layup that tied the game at 58.
#ICYMI 🔥@alissa_pili ➡️ @giannakneepkens pic.twitter.com/O0DwBi2qK7
— Utah Women’s Basketball (@UTAHWBB) February 6, 2023
Pili closed it out in the fourth quarter with 11 points, including five straight as Utah’s lead swelled to 82-76. She also converted a layup at the 1:02 mark and 20 seconds later drilled two free throws to ice the win and push the lead to 95-87.
Seventh-ranked Utah (20-2) moved into a first-place tie with No. 2 Stanford atop the Pac-12 standings at 10-2.
Pili has looked like the conference player of the year so far as she leads the Pac-12 in scoring (20.9) and FG% (.609) while ranking top-10 in 3FG% (.408) and top-20 in rebounds (5.9).
The former three-time Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year out of Dimond High improved her career points total to 1,254 as she moved into 19th on Alaska’s all-time college scoring list, passing former UAF standout Kaillee Skjold (1,247) of Soldotna. Next up are a pair of former Lathrop High stars – UAF’s Sheena Brown (1,262) and Kansas’ Aquanita Burras (1,270) of Fairbanks.