Nov. 29, 2008
Box Score
BOISE, Idaho - The Utah Valley women's basketball team ended an 11-game road losing streak by knocking off Boise State, 73-70, on Saturday behind 24 points and 16 rebounds from senior Robyn Fairbanks.
Asumi Nakayama hit four key free throws in the final 27 seconds and had a steal with two seconds left to ice the game. She finished with seven points, five assists and three steals.
"This game kind of followed the same pattern as last two losses where we were within a point or two and kind of lost it late," said head coach Cathy Nixon. "We watched film and told the kids that we had to buckled down defensively and we did. Asumi had those two steals and as team we got big rebounds. This is a great, quality win for us. We struggled the first two times we played them here and I'm thrilled to come out with a win."
The Wolverines (2-3) also got big contributions from Julie McMurray, who scored 19 points, and Sandy Marvin-Wall who finished with 15 and scored three key buckets, included the go-ahead layup with less than a minute left. Blake Reynolds had six points and a career high seven rebounds in her return home to Boise.
After carrying a six point lead into half time, Utah Valley pushed the lead up to as much as nine and led by eight, 52-44, with 12:29 remaining. Boise State (2-4) then went on a 16-4 run to take a six-point lead and control of the game.
Trailing 66-60 with 3:12 left, Marvin-Wall scored on a layup and a three pointer to get UVU within one at the 2:30 mark.
Sierra Moeller pushed the Bronco lead back to three with a bucket before Fairbanks got an offensive rebound and put it back to get back within one. After a BSU miss on the next possession, Marvin-Wall beat the defense back and gave the Wolverines a 69-68 lead with 57 seconds to go.
Nakayama then came up with a huge steal, picking the pocket of Brittany Moore with 32 seconds before getting fouled and hitting the first two of her late free throws.
Courtney Van Brocklin came back with two freebies for the Broncos to make it a one-point game with 5.5 seconds left before Nakayama calmly sank two more with four seconds on the clock before coming up with the game-ending steal at mid-court.
The Broncos were led by Van Brocklin's 19 points off the bench while Heather Pilcher scored 13, also in reserve.
Utah Valley overcame 26 turnovers by hitting 54.4 percent from the field compared to 38.2 percent from Boise State. The Wolverines also had a slight 41-37 edge on the boards.
After a slow offensive start from both teams, UVU scored six straight late in the first half to take a 25-18 lead. The Wolverines extended the lead to nine two times in the first half before taking a 36-30 lead into the break.
Utah Valley will now head to Hawai'i for three games beginning with the University of Hawai'i on Tuesday. They'll then play in the Seasider Classic at BYU-Hawai'i against USC (Friday) and San Diego (Saturday).
