The Utah Valley men’s basketball team headed to Kentucky to face an NCAA college basketball powerhouse, the University of Kentucky on Monday, Nov. 18. Outstanding performances from several Wolverines wouldn’t be enough to stop the Wildcats, losing 74-82.
An invite to play a top-10 nationally ranked team doesn’t happen often for any UVU team, but when they do, they tend to play their hearts out. The men’s basketball team has had the opportunity to play this Kentucky team once before, in 2017. That game ended in a similar fashion, in favor of the Wildcats 73-63.
Foul trouble proved to be fatal for the Wolverines in the first half of play. Thanks to those fouls, the Wildcats found themselves shooting 15 free throws and missing only one. This resulted in three UVU players with three fouls apiece in the half.
Despite all of that, UVU stayed close. The Wolverines shot 35.5 percent from the field, while knocking down 4-of-14 shots from deep — both of those stats better than the Wildcats in the half. Eliminate the 14 points that UK snagged from the charity stripe and UVU could have been up 27-21 at the half, instead of down 27-35.
“I’m proud of our team,” said Utah Valley head coach Mark Madsen. “I was proud of TJ (Washington) and every single man in that locker room because at one point we were down I think 16 points in the second half with about 17 or 18 minutes left in the game and these guys battled, they scrapped and that’s kind of a mantra on our team. Scrappiness, toughness, intensity no matter who we’re playing and I think you guys saw that tonight. I was really pleased with our guys. Obviously, we put the Wildcats at the free throw line too much and we didn’t get to the line enough. Overall, it was a great game and every player contributed.”
UVU stayed neck-and-neck with the Wildcats in the second half, scoring the same amount of points, 47 apiece. They would continue their hot shooting from deep with another seven buckets from behind the arc. Sophomore guard Trey Woodbury contributed three baskets from deep and senior guard TJ Washington added five long buckets himself.
Both players had outstanding nights and put up career-highs in points scored. Woodbury dropped 17 points with three rebounds and was perfect from the charity stripe with four. Washington had himself 22 points with five rebounds and five assists; he and senior forward Emmanuel Olojakpoke tied for the lead in rebounds.
The stats that stand out on the night for the Wolverines are points from behind the three-point line and field goal percentage. An impressive 35.5 percent from the three-point line compared the the Wildcats 8.3 is a great sign for UVU. On the season, the Wolverines have been shooting a much worse 29.6 percent in the same category. In field goal percentage, UVU shot nearly par for the season at 40.6 percent on the night, compared to 46.1 percent on the season.
Areas of improvement for the Wolverines was rebounding. It’s easy to blame the 27 rebounds compared to UK’s 46 on foul trouble for the UVU big men. At the same time, Washington, the second shortest guy on the court, led the team in rebounds.
Even though the Wolverines lost, they’ve proven not only to themselves, but everyone in the league that they can hang with the big boys. UVU showed true grit all 40 minutes of play and will now move forward and come home to play Lamar University on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m. MST.
