UVU men’s basketball hits century mark in first road win of season at Idaho State

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Photos courtesy of Byron Harward & Brady Lasueur

Pocatello — Utah Valley University senior guard Alex Carr doesn’t score much.  He is more of a role player who defends and rebounds. In fact, in 19 minutes of play on Saturday night at Idaho State, he hadn’t scored a bucket.  But then it came and it was a momentous basket. Carr hit a three point basket with 1:02 remaining that put UVU over the century mark and helped the Wolverines pick up their first road win of the season, 100-76 win over the Idaho State Bengals in Holt Arena.

UVU improves to 4-6 on the season while Idaho State falls to 3-5.

“What our guys did tonight was really hard,” said Utah Valley head coach Mark Pope in a statement to wolverinegreen.com. “It is so hard to have a losing streak where you’re questioning everything about what is happening and then to put together a double-overtime win when you have no bodies left. For our players to come back here on the road and be able to be focused and really play together is a tribute to these guys, especially their character. I couldn’t be happier and I am really proud of these guys.”

With 6:58 left in the first half, the Wolverines found themselves trailing 29-24. But then the flood gates opened. Andrew Bastien started a 26-4 run with a layup to cut the lead to three. Marcel Davis followed that up with a layup and the game completely turned. The run was capped off by a steal and layup from Hayden Schenck and UVU took a 50-33 lead into the half.

Coming out of the halftime break, Idaho State used a little 7-2 run to get within 12 but that was as close as they would get. UVU, led by Konner Frey, who  scored 16 of his team-high 19 in the second half, went on a little 8-0 spurt to push the lead back to 20, at 60-40 with 15 minutes left in the game. Hayden Schenck, who had nine points in the first half, scored nine more in the second to finish with 18.

The Wolverines shot the lights out in the second half as they shot 57 percent compared to 43 percent for the Bengals. Marcel Davis, Jaden Jackson, and Ivory Young all had 14 points, while Dayon Goodman scored 10 points in the blowout win. UVU was also on fire from three point distance. They hit 12 on the night and shot 44 percent from beyond the arc. They also had 19 assists and only seven turnovers. Frey was one rebound shy of a double-double with nine. 

Ali Faruq-bey led Idaho State with a game-high 22 points. Ben Wilson and Geno Luzcando were also in double figures with 14 and 12 points, respectively.

UVU continues their five-game road trip when they travel to San Antonio to take on UTSA on Saturday Dec. 19. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. MT.