With a countdown sign in the stands and Utah Jazz point guard and former Utah Valley standout Ronnie Price in the front row, as soon as the Wolverines took the court everyone new there was something in the atmosphere.
Ryan Toolson reached the mark of scoring 2,000 career points on the way to a dominating 71-55 victory over the Lamar University Cardinals.
“Ryan was absolutely sensational. I’ve never seen him better,” said coach Dick Hunsaker following the victory. “Second to none, the hoopla of the 2,000th point, I’ve never seen him so sharp.”
Toolson was terrific right out of the gate making seven of his first eight shots. He finished the first half 7-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-6 from long range.
“I think I hit my first four or five shots and when that happens to a shooter you’ll always get into that rhythm and get comfortable with pretty much any shot you take,” Toolson said after the game. “It’s a great accomplishment, not a lot of people have done that in their careers.”
To start off the second half, the Wolverines went on a 19-6 run and did not look back from there. The closest Lamar would get would be 14 the rest of the way.
Toolson finished with 32 and had 14 points in the second half, but offense like that was hardly necessary with the way the Wolverine defense was playing.
In the second half, Utah Valley held the Cardinals to 33 percent shooting from the floor and created 14 turnovers in the game.
“We made some plays defensively and arguably got as much offense out of our defense as we’ve had all season. There were two milestones tonight.” Hunsaker said.
For the night, the Wolverines shot 46.7 percent from the field and shot 21-of-25 from the charity stripe.
The Wolverines have now won four of their last five games and are looking to take this momentum on their three game road trip.
Utah Valley will have their last four games at home starting Feb. 20 against Cal-State University-Bakersfield.
