March 12, 2010

Box Score

Photo Gallery

OREM, Utah - The Utah Valley women scored an upset for the second straight day as they erased a 10-point halftime lead to top No. 2-seeded Texas-Pan American on Friday at the Great West Conference Tournament in the UVU Events Center.

The Wolverines (9-22) now face regular-season champion North Dakota on Saturday at 4 p.m. live on UVU-TV in the first-ever Great West tournament championship game. Fans can get into the game and the men's championship at 7:30 p.m. for just one dollar.

It was a tale of two halves as UVU scored 51 points and shot a blistering 68.2 percent in the second half after shooting 33.3 percent and turning the ball over 17 times in the opening 20 minutes. The Wolverines had just six turnovers after the break and wound up shooting 50 percent (23-for-46) overall.

"As Asumi (Nakayama) said in the locker room 'we live to play another day'. I'm excited to have another 40 minutes with them on the floor," said UVU head coach Cathy Nixon. "I told the kids after the game as gross as it was I loved it. It really summed up our season."

Utah Valley held the Lady Broncs (13-17) scoreless for over five minutes in the second half, turning a six-point deficit into a 59-49 lead with 4:34 to go. The Wolverines scored 14 straight points and had a 30-8 run overall after facing a 12-point deficit five minutes into the second half.

"We've been faced with that exact came challenge multiple times when things haven't been clicking for us and we haven't been able to get stops on the defensive end and we have been flat and stale," said Nixon. "

"It was a physical, mental and emotional test for us. It was a quick turnaround. I couldn't be happier for the girls in the way they turned it around and rose to the challenge."

The Wolverines were led in scoring by 20 points from Julie Smith on 5-for-8 shooting while Kaycee Mansfield finished with 11 points and a team season-high 14 rebounds. Three other players also reached double figures with Nakayama and Erika Newbold both adding 11 and Jenna Johnson finished with 10.

"In the second half we were a lot more patient with our offense and we executed a lot better which caused things to be more open," said Smith.

Bianca Torre led UTPA with 22 points and scored 12 of her team's 25 second-half points. The Lady Broncs shot just 24.2 percent (8-for-33) in the second half.

The Wolverines also had a lopsided 44-24 edge on the boards.