Jan. 16 at the College Park Center, Jackson Holcombe knocked down a last-second go-ahead bucket to give the Wolverines a 85-83 victory over UT Arlington.
Thursday, Feb. 6, Utah Valley returned home from its three-game road trip to host the UT Arlington Mavericks and dominated in fashion 98-73, improving to 8-1 in WAC play.
“We shot the crud out of it from three tonight going 14-for-30,” said head coach Todd Phillips. “It was good to see that ball go in for some guys and I thought we did a good job finding the right guys to take those shots.”
Utah Valley recorded 25 assists and knocked down a season-high 14 three-pointers, scoring 98 points, which is its highest this season in league-play.
The Wolverines also played at a high level defensively, forcing a total of 12 turnovers.
“It all starts with defense to me,” Phillips said. “I thought we did a really good job there and I’m really happy about that, but there is still so much more we can get better at.”
Dominick Nelson led all scorers with 19 points, while adding five assists and four rebounds.
Tanner Toolson drained three triples, finishing with 13 points and four assists. Carter Welling added 10 points, five rebounds and two blocks.
Trevan Leonhardt, who leads the WAC in assists per-game, continued to impress with eight assists along with 10 points and seven rebounds.
“I’m trying to always be ready and do what the team needs me to do,” Leonhardt said. “And that’s my role to make a difference in the game.”
Nelson got the Wolverines off to a quick start, scoring nine of the Wolverines first 15 points as Utah Valley took a quick 15-6 lead to begin the night.
The Mavericks then put together a 9-2 run over the next five minutes, trimming the lead down to three, 23-20, with 7:50 to go in the first half.
The Wolverines executed a 10-4 run out of the timeout as both Welling and Nelson had two consecutive slam dunks in transition.
Utah Valley didn’t hold back, putting together its highest scoring first half in league-play.
UVU outscored the Mavericks 13-6 in the final six minutes to close the half taking a 43-28 lead into the locker room.
Utah Valley continued to pour it on to start the second half outsourcing the Mavericks 17-6 through the first eight minutes.
UTA was able to produce a quick 9-2, which trimmed the lead to 63-44 with 10:38 to go, but UVU continued their brilliant shooting performance and led 72-50 with 7:32 left to play.
Utah Valley took its largest lead of the night at 25 after Leonhardt found Osirus Grady in transition for a slam dunk to put a statement on the night.
Despite UT Arlington closing the half off strong, Utah Valley gets a much needed win at home with 94-73 victory and now improves to 16-7 overall and 8-1 in WAC play.
The Wolverines remain home Saturday, Feb 8 at 2 p.m to host Tarleton State, looking to stay unbeaten at home this season. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ and air on 960 AM/103.9 FM in Utah County.
