Box Score : Cumulative Stats

OREM, Utah -  You won’t find any believers in the moral victory in the Utah Valley State women’s locker room, but the team had to feel better after giving themselves a chance to win Saturday night at The McKay Center.

Ultimately the Northern Colorado Bears prevailed 68-64, but the improvements were evident on the stat sheet. After committing 31 turnovers earlier in the week at Fresno State, the Wolverines only gave the ball away a season low 10 times.

Kaydee Allred had her best scoring night since December with 18 and Miriam Palkki pulled down 10 rebounds to go with 13 points, reaching double figures in rebounds for only the second time this season.

“I do think we played a good basketball game,” said Coach Cathy Nixon. “We took care of the ball. But we didn’t defend the three-point line and I think the thing that really hurt was allowing them offensive rebounds.”

The second chance points were nearly even between the two teams, but Northern Colorado’s early barrage of three pointers put Utah Valley in a hole they had to climb out of.

UNC sophomore Nicole Ford came into the game having made just one triple this season, but scored the first 12 points of the game for the Bears after hitting four straight from beyond the arc in the first five minutes of the game.

In fact, the two teams combined to make the first 12 field goals of the game all three-pointers with UNC using the trey to build a 22-14 lead nine minutes in.

Utah Valley held tough as Fales had one of her best halves of the season with 14 points and three rebounds and Utah Valley used a 5-0 run at the end of the half to trim a 10 point deficit to five.

In the second half, the Wolverines crept back and took the lead on a Kaydee Allred bucket with 14:39 to go. Northern Colorado answered though, with the game tied at 45 as Jena Fosdick and Kendra Lambrecht hit back to back threes to give the Bears a six point lead.

The Wolverines then used a 10-0 run capped off by a Meredith Lynn jumper with 6:31 to go to take a 55-51 lead. The Bears answered with a 13-5 run of their own capped off by a big Fosdick three with just 2:05 to go.

Utah Valley had a chance when Allred hit a jumper with 43 seconds to go, but Fosdick delivered the dagger with a lay-up with just 18 seconds to go.

Fosdick was scoreless at the half, but scored 15 in the second to give UNC the boost it needed to hold off the Wolverines.

Allred’s 18 points led Utah Valley, while Fales chipped in 16 and Palkki posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Meredith Lynn provided a nice spark off the bench in her sister Courtney’s final regular season home game at Utah Valley State, scoring a career high five points.

Utah Valley State hosts the Division I Independent Women’s Basketball Championship next weekend to close out the 2004-05 season. Thursday through Saturday, the Wolverines and five other teams including Northern Colorado, will participate in the tournament.

Utah Valley is set to take on Texas A&M Corpus-Christi in the first round Thursday March 3rd at 7:00pm.