UVSC trots out hoops teams

OREM — At Utah Valley State's "Meet the Team Night" Thursday, several new faces were on display as the Wolverines unveiled their 2005-06 men's and women's basketball teams.

Men's coach Dick Hunsaker lost star guard and leading scorer Ronnie Price to graduation and the NBA. In an effort to compensate for Price's departure while staying competitive this season, Hunsaker landed five junior-college transfers and not a single high school recruit.

"I don't have Ronnie Price to take all the shots," Hunsaker said. "Obviously, this is going to be a much more balanced group. Now, I'm dying for someone to surface as a star. I'd love to have a star, but you don't have to have stars — there's all different ways to do it. This is all so uncertain (because) I don't know who is going to evolve and replenish the point (contributions)."

Hunsaker chose not to elaborate about which players he expected to lead this year's squad. The top returning scorers include junior forward David Heck and senior guard Pierre Thomas.

In contrast to the men's juco additions, women's coach Cathy Nixon sought to bolster her team's prospects by signing five true freshmen and only one junior-college transfer.

"Our goal in recruiting is just to find the best player for the job that we can get," Nixon said. "We wanted freshmen that could compete and felt like that was the way to go if we could get freshmen, because you're going to have them here for four years."

Among the top frosh additions are Utahans Sandy Marvin (Payson High) and Ashley Grimm (Skyline) as well as Canadian import Robyn Fairbanks. Top returners include sophomore Rebekah Fales and senior Miriam Palkki.

The Meet the Team festivities began with the women's team participating in a full-court fast-break drill. In a game of Lightning featuring four women's players and several members of the UVSC community, Marvin's dead-eye free-throw shooting propelled her to first place.

The men then took center stage, with some members of the squad participating against former Wolverine basketball players in a 3-point shooting contest. Heck sank 10 treys in 30 seconds to beat junior forward Matt Peterson in the final round. In a five-on-five scrimmage with a 15-minute running clock, the two 6-foot-10 centers played well — senior Ben Devoe scored eight points and sophomore Nik Grant hauled in four rebounds. Senior guard Sylvester Allison led all scorers with 11 points, including three on an improbable 60-foot shot at the buzzer.

Both the men's and women's teams begin their exhibition schedules with a home game next week. The men host Westminster College on Tuesday, and the women square off against Western State next Saturday.

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