UVSC men get road win in Big Sky country

OREM — By going to Bozeman and beating Montana State 60-53 Saturday, the Utah Valley State men's basketball team notched the program's first-ever road win against a Big Sky Conference opponent.

It was a feat the Wolverines had very nearly accomplished two weeks earlier until a second-half collapse on Dec. 2 led to a 71-69 loss at Portland State. In that game, UVSC got outscored by 21 points after halftime, and the Vikings didn't take their first lead of the game until 40 seconds remained in the contest.

Saturday against the Bobcats, however, there would be no second-half letdown. Although the Wolverines struggled from the field all night, shooting a paltry 36.2 percent on field goal tries, UVSC protected its lead against a late rally by going 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the final 90 seconds of the game. In addition to scoring a team-high 14 points, sophomore guard Ryan Toolson was the grand marshal of the Wolverine parade to the charity stripe by virtue of making all nine of the foul shots he attempted Saturday.

"I am really pleased with the effort our team gave (Saturday)," UVSC coach Dick Hunsaker said. "We battled through a tough game, played our hearts out down the stretch and gutted out the win."

Wolverine of the week

ROBYN FAIRBANKS, center, women's basketball: The UVSC women's basketball team may have lost consecutive home games to BYU and UC Riverside on Saturday and Monday, respectively, but it's not as if Fairbanks didn't do everything in her power to propel the Wolverines to perhaps a win or two.

In a 71-57 loss Saturday to the Cougars, Fairbanks scored a game-high 19 points. Then Monday against the Highlanders, the 6-foot-1 sophomore and Canadian import scored a career-high 34 points in a 70-69 loss. Against UCR, Fairbanks scored her team's final 10 points and came very close to single-handedly erasing a seven-point deficit with two minutes to go.

For the season, Fairbanks is third nationally with 24.5 points per game.

The week that was

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: After racing out to a school-record 9-1 start, the UVSC women's basketball team came back down to earth over the weekend with back-to-back home losses to BYU and UC Riverside.

Unable to match the Cougars' depth and size, the Wolverines got out-rebounded 56-36 in Saturday's 71-57 loss to BYU. Monday, UVSC freshman point guard Asumi Nakayama had a decent look at a potentially game-winning shot from the top of the key that she missed as time expired, sealing a 70-69 win for the Highlanders.

Ahead

MEN'S BASKETBALL: vs. Southern Utah, 7:05 p.m. Friday

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL and WRESTLING: Idle.