Poor shooting dooms men’s basketball in Seattle

Photo by Sarah Sanchez

SEATTLE—UVU was unable to overcome its shooting woes Saturday night on the road and dropped the game 63-50 against Seattle University.

The Wolverines did not score their first bucket of the night until 14 minutes remained in the first half, a sign of what kind of night it would be shooting the ball. From beyond the arc, the Wolverines shot 1-for-12 and 5-of-30 overall from the field. UVU scored just 18 points in the first half which they ended with a 14-point deficit.

In the second half UVU regrouped and went on a 12-3 run to cut the lead to five points in the first four minutes. The Redhawks then knocked down a few 3-pointers and UVU was unable to cut Seattle’s lead down the rest of the way.

Seattle and UVU had nearly identical stat lines with second chance points, points off turnovers and points in the paint. The difference in the game came from 3-point range as the Redhawks shot 7-of-20 from deep while the Wolverines made just three in 23 attempts. Seattle shot 46 percent from the field as UVU struggled with a 30 percent clip. A bright spot being that UVU outscored the Redhawks 32-31 in the second half.

Matej Kavas, the 6-8 guard from Slovenia, scored a game-high 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field for Seattle, including three treys. William Powell and Brendan Westendorf scored 13 and 11 points, respectively. Westendorf had five assists and five rebounds to round out a solid performance.

Kenneth Ogbe scored 12 points to lead all Wolverine scorers and snagged six rebounds. Brandon Randolph scored 10 points with five rebounds and four assists in a respectable showing. Jordan Poydras struggled especially shooting the ball, making one of his seven 3-point attempts in a night when no shooter could get hot. Isaac Neilson fell a bit short of a double-double with his seven points and nine rebounds.

UVU remains on the road where it will play Missouri-Kansas City Thursday night with tipoff set for 7 p.m. MST.