PROVO, Utah—Konner Frey scored a team-high 19 points and Ivory Young added 13 to lead the Utah Valley University men's basketball team in an 85-54 setback to Brigham Young Friday night in front of 17,683 fans at the Marriott Center.
 
"We got hamstrung a little bit by nerves," said Utah Valley head coach Mark Pope. "We got slowed down and then the Bull stopped moving and it gets lethargic. We lost to the gravity of the game this time. Obviously, this is a very good BYU team and they are really big."
 
Brigham Young (1-0) got out to a quick 10-2 lead just six minutes into the game, and then extended the lead to a 20-point advantage, 22-2, midway through the first half. UVU's Frey and Young hit back-to-back threes to spark an 11-2 Wolverine run, cutting the BYU lead to 32-19 at the 5:21 mark. The Cougars then responded with a run of their own to hold on to the early 20-point cushion, taking a 46-26 lead into the half.  
 
The Wolverines couldn't get any closer than 19 points in the second half as the Cougars continued to build on their lead in the second half to secure the win.
 
Frey scored his team-high 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field. The junior forward also hit one shot from beyond the arc and made 4-of-5 free throws. Frey pulled down six rebounds and registered one steal. Young recorded his 13 points on a 4-of-15 clip from the field, including three shots from long range. Darrious Hamilton helped with eight points on the night.
 
Utah Valley shot a 26.8 clip (19-of-71) from the field, while BYU hit 40.5 percent (30-of-74) of its shots. Both teams struggled from beyond the arc as UVU hit 26.8 percent (5-of-29) of its shots from long range compared to BYU's 28 percent clip (7-of-25).
 
The Cougars out-rebounded Utah Valley 69-36 on the night. BYU's Kyle Davis pulled down a game-high 20 boards, including a BYU single game record 18 defensive rebounds. Chase Fischer led BYU in scoring with 20 points.
 
"They doubled us up on the glass, which I've never actually seen before," Pope said. "We've got to fix our issues on the glass and we've got to play with more pace and more freedom and we'll figure it out. I have a lot of faith in these players. I really like coaching them. They are terrific young men. They are fighting a really limited roster but we're going to get some real meat out of this season. We need to play better than we did tonight."
 
Utah Valley will turn right around and head back down University Parkway for a Saturday home opener against Great Falls. Saturday's game will tip-off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN 960 AM.
 
"This is an important game for us tomorrow," Pope said. "We have to come out and we have to somehow bottle up all the frustration and disappointment from tonight and refocus for tomorrow. It's one of the great things about sport. You don't have a lot of time to sit and indulge in feeling bad. I have great guys in this locker room. They are going to battle and we'll have good results tomorrow. We'll play really hard and we will figure it out and we'll have better pacing and we will play well."