Daneesha Provo's increased scoring has been a boost for the Utes, who host No. 14 UCLA on Friday

High-scoring junior Daneesha Provo and the Utah women’s basketball team know they have a chance to notch a big win on their home court on Friday night.

The Utes (12-3, 3-1) enters this weekend as the highest-scoring Pac-12 Conference team since the start of conference play (81.3 points per game, 36.6 percent of its 3-pointers). When they host No. 14 UCLA (11-4, 2-2) on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Hunstman Center, it will be a match-up of the the conference’s most productive offensive team against its stingiest defensive team. UCLA also entered this season as the preseason favorite in the Pac-12.

“That’s the beauty of playing in the Pac-12, you’re always going to be able to play against a higher-end team that’s ranked in the Top 25,” Provo said. “It’s just being able to prove ourselves, that we belong in this league. Those games are like fun games because all the pressure is on them, and it’s a big opportunity for us to come out with a win.”

The Bruins, who have held Pac-12 opponents to an average of 60.3 point per game, figures to make Provo a priority in its defensive game plan. She has averaged a team-leading 14.3 points per game, shot 42 percent from 3-point range and 53 percent from the field overall.

Provo, a 6-foot tall wing from Nova Scotia, Canada, has grown into a dependable scorer in her second season playing for the Utes. Provo sat out the 2015-16 season after she transferred from Clemson. Last season, Provo played in all 31 games for the Utes and averaged 3.5 points in 12.5 minutes per game. Provo said she felt like she lacked a feel for the game and her confidence wavered last season coming off a redshirt year.

“[Last season] was basically just a test,” Provo said. “I felt like I had to go through that adversity to get where I’m at today. It was kind of more like a learning experience and me maturing me more as a person and as a player to get to where I’m at now. If you think about it, you kind of have to go through the darkness to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Provo entered this week having averaged 21 points per game during Pac-12 play, the second-highest scoring average in the conference. She scored 20 points in a win at Washington last Friday, and then followed with 22 points (14 in the second half) in the team’s comeback win at Washington State on Sunday. Those wins gave the Utes their first road sweep of Pac-12 opponents since joining the conference prior to the 2011-12 season.

“It’s kind of like a pitcher when they’re throwing a no-hitter,” Utes coach Lynne Roberts said of Provo’s increased scoring. “You don’t want to talk to them about it. Just let them do their thing. She’s playing great. It’s not just in conference though. She’s been playing really well all season long.

“When Tori Williams went down in the first minute against Arizona, our first conference game, up until that point Daneesha had been coming off the bench which was quite a luxury. To have somebody like that coming off the bench is amazing. Now, she’s in the starting five because Tori has been hobbled with an ankle. So I think just her production has been up partially because of that maybe, but she’s just been playing confidently with kind of a poise that she hasn’t shown since this season.”