The Utah Valley University Men’s Basketball team matched up against California Baptist University for the first round of the WAC Tournament and fell short 74-63 in an overtime thriller.
Drake Allen played a great second half for the Wolverines finishing with 17 points along with five assists despite going 4-16 from the field. Ethan Potter continued his dominant performance leading all scorers with 23 points and five rebounds.
“I was really proud of our guys tonight,” head coach Todd Phillips said. “I think the game was a little bit like our season has been, we get down, we dig ourselves a hole and fight to get back but I am really proud of our guys overall.”
Through the first 10:00 minutes of the game, both teams fought to get out in front but CBU shot well from the field giving them an early 22-16 lead with 6:29 to go in the half.
Despite shooting 0% from beyond the arc, Potter was able to keep the Wolverines within striking distance getting it done in the paint.
Utah Valley outscored the Lancers 18-8 in the paint throughout the first half.
“It’s a long season, we all played our asses off and came up short,” Potter said. “But we gave it our all and there’s not much more we could have done.”
Utah Valley was able to piece together a 14-6 to close out the half giving them a 30-28 lead heading into the locker room.
The Lancers striked first to start the half taking a 35-32 lead with 17:05 to go.
UVU was able to tie the game up at 40 but a 9-0 burst from the Lancers gave them their largest lead of the game 49-40.
Potter then scored a layup and Allen knocked down two much-needed 3-pointers to spark a 10-2 run for UVU as they were able to cut the lead to four with 4:17 to go.
After trimming the lead to two, the Wolverines had a crucial stop giving them a chance to tie or take the lead with less than 30 seconds to go.
Driving to the basket, Allen was fouled with three seconds to go in the game.
Two clutch free throws from Allen tied it up as CBU was unable to win it at the buzzer, heading to overtime 60-60.
CBU opened the overtime period on fire mounting a 9-0 quick run which was the knockout punch as the Lancers come up with a 74-63 win moving on to the second round where they will face No. 4 seed Seattle University.
Utah Valley is now 1-4 in the Orleans arena over the last four years at the WAC Tournament, after losing in the semi-final last year to the Allen led Southern Utah.
Phillips stated after the game he was unsure if the team would compete in the CBI tournament, but said he and the administration would discuss the potential of playing, leaving the door open for one more run for Utah Valley.
