Opponent: North Dakota State
Date: February 24, 2006
Location: Orem, Utah (McKay Center)
Time: 7:05pm MST


This Week's Action ...
The Wolverines will play their final home game of the season on Friday when fellow D-I Independent North Dakota State comes to town on senior night for three outgoing Utah Valley seniors.

UV had its three game winning streak stopped on Tuesday when Northern Colorado picked up a 67-64 win at the McKay Center.

North Dakota State is 8-15 and has lost six in a row, but they played nationally ranked Minnesota to a nine-point game during that streak.

Utah Valley State is currently 3-1 against D-I Independents with three games to go. They will finish the season on a two-game road trip at IPFW next Wednesday and at Texas-Pan American Saturday, March 4th.

Newcomer of the Week ...
Miriam Palkki, Kaydee Allred and Jessica Scabby will play the final home games of their careers against North Dakota State. Palkki and Allred were both part of the program before the switch to NCAA athletics.

Palkki will leave Utah Valley as the school's all-time leading scorer during its NCAA tenure. She is currently carrying a career average of 11.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

Allred has averages of 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game while Scabby has a career average of 2.4 points per game and is third all-time in games played at Utah Valley.

Independents Update ...
Freshman Robyn Fairbanks really hasn't played like a freshman all season. The Canadian center is averaging 18.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game while shooting 53% from the floor.

Her scoring and rebounding averages are both tops among all Division-I Independent players. She is currently leading Longwood's Ashley Mason who averages 16.8 points and 8.6 rebounds and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Terra Andrews who averages 16.6 and 8.1 rebounds. Both Mason and Andrews are seniors.

Last Time Out ...
Northern Colorado built an early double-digit lead and held on late for a 67-64 win over Utah Valley State Tuesday afternoon despite 29 points from freshman Robyn Fairbanks.

Utah Valley (10-14) had a shot to tie the game in the closing seconds but a three-pointer by Veva Whitear glanced off the rim and the Bears (13-13) hung on.

Robyn Fairbanks hit 12-for-14 from the field for the Wolverines. She scored her 29 points in 25 minutes of action after playing just six minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.

The game got off to a quick start with Northern Colorado hitting eight of its first nine shots and quickly building a double-digit lead at 18-8 with 15 minutes remaining in the first half.

"I wasn't happy with the way we came out," Utah Valley head coach Cathy Nixon said. "We gave them an early lead and had to play from behind the rest of the game."

With UV down 33-20 with under-five minutes to play in the first half Utah Valley State outscored Northern Colorado 9-4 to cut the Bears' halftime lead to 37-29.

After the Wolverines started the second half on a 7-2 run to cut the Bears' lead to 39-36, Northern Colorado came back with its own 7-2 burst to build the lead back up to eight.

Utah Valley State clawed it way back, tying the game on at 51 on a free throw with 6:10 remaining in the game.

"We put ourselves in a position to win at the end," Nixon said. "I felt good about the way we competed.

The Bears came back with seven unanswered points in the next 90 seconds to hold a 58-51 lead with 4:32 remaining.

A pair of free throws from Fairbanks cut the lead to 60-55 with 55 seconds remaining. After forcing a turnover, Veva Whitear nailed a three-pointer to make the game a two-point deficit.

The Bears traded foul shots for Utah Valley State buckets. Northern Colorado maintained the 67-64 lead with 10.6 seconds remaining before Whitear's shot missed as the final horn sounded.

Scouting the Opposition ...
North Dakota State head into Friday's game in the midst of its biggest losing streak of the season at six games.

They are led by Katie Lorenz, who averages 12.7 points per game. Brandee Gibbs leads the team in rebounds with a 5.6 per game average.

Up Next ...
The Wolverines will finish the 2005-06 season with road games at IPFW (March 1st) and Texas-Pan American (March 4th).