Junior guard Natasha Lacy’s statement regarding the Lady Frogs’ (15-10, 9-5) game Thursday against the No. 22 Utah Utes (20-5, 11-3) embodies the one thing most athletes shy away from – a guarantee.”Plain and simple,” Lacy said. “We’re going to win. We have no other choice; our backs are against the wall right now. They’re ranked, so we need another top 25 victory just so it looks good on our resume.”

The Frogs are coming off a tough loss to No. 21 Brigham Young University. Sophomore guard Adrianne Ross said the team has worked hard in practice to fix the problems encountered during that game.

“We definitely came into practice after the loss and started to practice a lot harder and with a lot more enthusiasm and discipline,” Ross said. “We know that’s what it is going to take to beat Utah and win these last couple conference games.”

A problem encountered against Utah was 6-foot-1-inch forward Kim Smith, who went off for 24 points and 16 rebounds the last time the teams met Jan. 28. Lacy said the Frogs will focus on Smith but follow the same game plan used against her before.

“We’re going to do the same thing defensively we did to her last game – nothing out of the ordinary,” Lacy said. “She’s a good player and she is going to make shots and get rebounds. We just have to limit her touches and the shots that she gets.”

Head coach Jeff Mittie said that although the team was able to surprise the Utes with its game plan in their last meeting, he thinks Utah will be ready to adjust this time around.

“We switched some things defensively, so we won’t have the element of surprise this game,” Mittie said. “Defensively, I expect them to be better prepared so we have to be better as well.”

With a victory Thursday, Mittie can reach the 300-win plateau for his career. Mittie said he is more concerned with this next regular season win than with his career total at the moment.

“I wish it would have happened six, seven, eight games or maybe even a season ago, but I haven’t even thought about it,” Mittie said. “I have thought a lot about trying to get to win No. 16 right now though.”

Ross said the Frogs are ready to get win No. 16 Thursday. She also said the team is where it needs to be at this point of the season – heading into the conference tournament.

“We are ready physically,” Ross said. “Mentally, we still make mistakes during the game that hurt us. Once we put it all together, physical and mental, we will be ready. We will have what it takes.”

Mittie echoed Ross’ sentiments.

“We’ve had some highs and lows this year, as we got off to a tough start playing a very tough schedule,” Mittie said. “I don’t think we’ve put together a 40-minute game yet, and that’s what we are striving to do as we go into the most critical part of the year.