UVSC gets 23 from guard in balanced-scoring win

OREM — The Utah Valley State women's basketball team employed a balanced scoring attack Thursday to defeat visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 91-78.

Freshman guard Sandy Marvin scored a career-high 23 points to lead six Wolverines in double figures.

Despite her stellar offensive output, Marvin was so sick with flu-like symptoms before the game that she was almost held out of the starting lineup as a precautionary measure.

"I'm not feeling very good," Marvin said. "I knew what needed to be done. My body wasn't feeling very strong, so I started out just setting up other people. Doing that got me open."

With less than seven minutes left in the game, the Wolverines were hemorrhaging points and clinging to a 72-67 advantage — their smallest lead since the game's opening minutes.

Robyn Fairbanks, UVSC's top scorer, fouled out with 6:31 to go; Corpus Christi center Sarah Davidson was headed to the line with a chance to cut the Wolverine lead to three.

But Utah Valley (10-13) rallied in the face of potentially disastrous circumstances. After Davidson missed both of her free throws, UVSC sophomore Rebekah Peterson provided instant offense by scoring eight consecutive Wolverine points.

When Petersen finished pouring in three layups and a pair of free throws, UVSC had extended its lead to 80-69. The rest of the way, the Wolverines would not see their lead dip below seven points.

As valuable as Peterson's offensive outburst was to Utah Valley, the job she did guarding Corpus Christi leading scorer Terra Andrews over that same span may have meant more to the Wolverines.

"Defensively, we put (Peterson) on Andrews, and Andrews had kind of had her way with us for a stretch there," Utah Valley coach Cathy Nixon said. "I thought Rebekah did a great job defensively, and it kind of got her going and sparked her offensively. We definitely needed that with Robyn on the bench."

UVSC finished the game on a 10-4 run despite missing four free throws in the final minutes.

The largest Wolverine lead of the game was 17 points and came with seven minutes remaining in the first half. Junior guard Veva Whitear made a 3-pointer from the left corner and completed a three-point play on consecutive possessions to give Utah Valley a 36-19 advantage.

By halftime, the Islanders (13-11) had cut the deficit to 43-34.

Andrews finished with a game-high 25 points and led Corpus Christi with eight rebounds.

Fairbanks totaled 19 points in only 23 minutes of playing time. Peterson scored 14 for the Wolverines, and Miriam Palkki and Hollie Beaman added 11 points apiece.