Jan. 22, 2011

Box Score

VERMILLION, S.D. -- The Utah Valley University women's basketball team wrapped up its two-game Great West Conference road trip to the Dakotas Saturday night with a 72-44 loss to the University of South Dakota.

Sammie Jensen led the Wolverines with her eighth double-double of the year with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Kaycee Mansfield added nine points and five boards and Abbie Beutler and Kim Bell had seven points each.

"We are a team that is very fragile on the offensive end of the floor right now. We had open shots early but unfortunately they didn't go down," UVU women's coach Cathy Nixon said. "We got back on our heels and let them have their way with us in the first half and we dug ourselves into a hole. Right now we're not a team that has the firepower offensively to comeback from that."

The Wolverines trailed by four early in the first half before Beutler drained two foul shots and Bell knocked down a 3-pointer to give UVU its only lead of the game at 7-6.

The Coyotes went on a 7-0 run to take the lead for good. UVU, however, pulled to within two points on back-to-back buckets by Mansfield at 13-11 with 11:19 left in the first half, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the game.

USD opened the game back up with a 12-0 run before UVU's Jenna Johnson stopped the run with a lay-up with 7:26 left in the half.

Later, Utah Valley cut the lead to 10 points in a lay-up by Mansfield at the 6:17 mark of the first half.

Mansfield and Beutler paced the Wolverines, who shot 37 percent from the field in the half, with seven each in the first 20 minutes.

With the loss, the Wolverines fall to 2-16 overall and 0-3 in GWC play, while the Coyotes improve to 10-9 and 1-1 in league play.

For the game, the Wolverine shot just 29 percent from the field, while USD shot 41.8 percent.

Amber Hegge led USD with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

The Wolverines have a pair of GWC contests next week when they host Chicago State on Thursday and NJIT on Saturday at the UCCU Center.