Utah Valley Women’s Basketball hosted Tarleton State University on Thursday night in a must-win game to keep their hopes alive for the WAC tournament. The Wolverines were led by Talia White who scored a career-high 25 points while knocking down five three-pointers.
“Our team chemistry has really been building so much this season,” White said. “We all are relying on each other so much and everything seems to be coming together at the perfect time”.
Eleyana Tafisi also had an amazing night dishing out a career-high 10 assists While Kylee Mabry and Ally Criddle both added 11 points of their own.
Utah Valley came out of the gate fast as four of the Wolverines’ five starters were on the board by the first media timeout taking a quick 11-6 lead.
Out of the timeout, the Texans were able to find rhythm in their offense scoring six straight buckets helping them gain the lead going into the second quarter.
To start the second quarter both teams were sloppy continuing to turn the ball over but the Texans took advantage, scoring six straight extending their lead to seven.
It didn’t take long for Utah Valley to respond as they quickly got back into the game off of White’s phenomenal shooting entering the half down 39-34.
“Sharing the ball the way we did allowed us to get good looks,” head coach Dan Nielson said. “We were able to knock most of them down”.
Entering the three-minute mark of the third quarter, Mabry found Halle Nelson on a cross-court dime as she knocked down a triple to give the Wolverines their biggest lead of the night 49-45.
Utah Valley’s great shooting night continued as they never gave up their lead and finished the night shooting a conference-high 49% from the field as they kept their tournament hopes alive with a 73-66 win over the Texans.
“Our backs are against the wall and we needed a spark and got one tonight,” Nielson said. “There were a lot of players who stepped up and made big plays when we needed it”.
Utah Valley will stay at home to host Abilene Christian in a must-win game, this Saturday, Mar 9 at 2 p.m. The Wolverines will also need UTRGV to defeat Southern Utah for the opportunity to play in the WAC Tournament.
