Photo by Johnny Morris
UVU Extends Home Winning Streak to 21 Straight
UVU was back in action Saturday night after dropping two games on the road, and were looking to bounce back at home against Seattle University. SU also came into the game having lost two conference games away from home.
The last time the Redhawks visited Orem was last March. On UVU’s senior day,they left town with a 26-point loss. The Wolverines would look to replicate that same play on Saturday night. Seattle didn’t come out nearly as flat, and nothing would end up coming easy for the Wolverines.
The Redhawks started the game on a 13-2 run and kept it going from there. The Wolverines started to cut at the early deficit but the Redhawks’ red-hot shooting put them on an 11-0 run with score at 23-14, to push their lead to 20 with the score then being 34-14. SU’s junior guard, Morgan Means, had a terrific first half — scoring 20 points.
The Wolverines went into halftime down 13, and going into this game had a record of 0-4 when trailing at the half this season. Down, but not out, the Wolverines started the second half with a lot of energy and was seen by a 16-5 run. As the Wolverines continued to cut the lead down, the fatigue and frustration began to build on the Redhawks team..
Finally, under the seven-minute mark, UVU took their first lead of the game 69-68. They would not trail again and would go on to win 88-78.
“We needed it, we went on the road and lost two really hard games and we came home and our home crowd really helped us,” said UVU head coach Mark Pope.
Coach Pope gave credit to many different guys after the comeback win and even had a joke about the now second longest active home win streak in the nation.
“I made the joke that when president came here she said that she would not fire me until we lost a game at home and so I said to her after, ‘Hey it looks like I get to stay until next week.” I got one more week baby!”’ said Pope.
The biggest standout on the night was sophomore center, Richard Harward, who was not expected to get big minutes much at all this season. He was able to come off the bench and spark the Wolverines with 12 points and 15 rebounds while shooting a perfect 4-4 from the field. Another standout was junior guard, Jake Toolson, who led the team in scoring with 26 points.
The Wolverines are now 1-2 in conference play and will now look ahead to Thursday’s home game against UT Rio Grande Valley. The Wolverines’ home winning streak has now been extended to 21 straight.
