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The Utah women's basketball team remained undefeated after knocking off Northern Arizona 78-65 at the Huntsman Center Wednesday afternoon.

Utah (11-0) rushed out to a 17-5 lead to start the game before the Lumberjacks chipped away.

"We get off to a quick start and then just lose a little bit of our energy," Utes' center Emily Potter said. "It's tough to pick it up. We need to do a better job of that obviously."

At the end of the second period, Northern Arizona (4-7) scored seven straight points to pull within 31-30 before a 3-pointer by Wendy Anae sent the Utes into the locker room with a 34-30 edge.

"The last two games, the second quarter for us hasn't been our strongest," said sophomore guard Erika Bean. "I put it on us — just lack of intensity, just kind of relaxed after that first quarter."

The next game for Utah will start Pac-12 competition, a game against UCLA on Dec. 30. In the meantime, the Utes are ready to scatter for Christmas break.

"Lots of people on our team are leaving tonight to go home to their families. It is a hard time to focus," Potter said. "It's not an excuse — everyone else is going through the same things."

With her 22 points, Potter surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career.

"I don't think people recognize how athletic [Potter]is," Utah coach Lynne Roberts said. "Today was a tough game for her. Everybody was just short and scrappy. It was a frustrating game for us, but you have to give Northern Arizona credit — they just played with nothing to lose."

The Lumberjacks, led by Rene Coggins' 17 points and 16 points from Olivia Lucero, pulled to within two on a Kaleigh Paplow 3-pointer with 5:30 left in the third.

From that point, it was primarily Potter and Bean that led the Utes to re-establishing a double-figure lead and cruising to the win.

Going coast-to-coast with a rebound and a layup on the other end, Bean pushed the lead back to four points before fellow guard Malia Nawahine popped a 3. Bean registered a three-point play with 3:41 left in the third for a 48-39 lead for Utah.

Bean finished with seven points, six rebounds and seven assists.

"I told Erika, 'They aren't guarding you.' Then she took it to the basket, got an and-one," Roberts said. "I thought that kind of triggered us."

Paige Crozon had 15 points for Utah while Tanaeya Boclair (11 points) and Nawahine (10) also got into double figures for the Utes.