Photo by Brigham Berthold
Orem, Utah – The Utah Valley University women’s basketball team struggled to keep its early lead against BYU Friday night. Turnovers and inexperience played major factors in the 68-50 home opener loss at the UCCU Center.
In what looked to be an evenly contested game in the course of the first two quarters, UVU managed to end the half trailing 36-33. However, the second quarter was the last time UVU would score a field goal, as it scored only from free throws the rest of the game.
“For about 30 minutes, we actually were really pretty good,” said UVU head coach Cathy Nixon. “With the foul trouble, we had some really inexperienced kids. When that happens, they are out there getting experience.”
A recurring theme for the game was turnovers. UVU turned the ball over a total of 27 times to BYU’s 22. However, BYU was able to take full advantage of UVU’s mistakes and scored a total of 32 points off the turnovers.
“Their overall defense did take us out of things there for a stretch, but more than anything, we lost our focus,” said Nixon.
Sophomore guard Britta Hall led UVU with 18 points on 5-of-15 shooting—all makes came on 3-pointers—and 3-of-4 shooting from the free-throw line.
“I knew I had to shoot the ball, I had to be confident in that,” said Hall. “But I give all the credit to my teammates for finding me.”
It was a tough loss for UVU, which seemed lost and inexperienced. UVU will now look to Wednesday, when it faces Weber State at home. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. MT.
