Once again, the Marquette women's team made things interesting.

In their third and final game of the 2008 WBCA Classic, the Golden Eagles saw a big lead slip away in the second half and mounted a late rally before falling, 79-76, to Utah Sunday evening at the Al McGuire Center.

The Golden Eagles had a chance to pull out the victory in the final seconds. Georgie Jones was fouled on a miss with 6.3 seconds left, but missed a pair of free throws that would have tied the game. On the second miss, a fight for the rebound led to a jump ball that gave possession to Utah with 3.4 left.

On the inbounds, Marquette thought they forced another jump situation, but Lauren Thomas-Johnson was called for the foul with 2.5 seconds left. Utah hit both free throws to ice the game.

The Utes snapped a four-game losing streak by holding Marquette to just 31 percent shooting (10 of 32) from the field and outrebounding the Golden Eagles, 21-13. After trailing by 15 at the half, Utah outscored the Golden Eagles, 46-28, in the final 20 minutes.

"It was a tale of two halves," said head coach Terri Mitchell. We played with no urgency in the second half. We didn't listen and its not any surprise we end up on the losing end."

Senior guard Krystal Ellis led Marquette with 23 points while Jones added 10. Eliis was named to the All-Tournament team.

Utah (2-4) got 30 points and nine rebounds from Kalee Whipple.

Marquette, which dropped to 5-2 on the season, returns to action Tuesday night when the Golden Eagles take on Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.