OREM, Utah—The Utah Valley University women's basketball team overcame a 16-point deficit to defeat Kansas City in overtime Thursday night to win 61-51, with Sam Loggins leading UVU with 15 points.

Rhaiah Spooner-Knight followed with 13 points, while freshman Mariah Seals scored 12 and Georgia Agnew chipped in 10. Rebecca MaWhinney also finished with nine points on the night, and Taylor Gordon contributed two to round out the Wolverine scoring. Gordon and Spooner-Knight led the team in rebounds with six each, Loggins pulled down five and MaWhinney grabbed four.  Loggins also had four blocks.  Utah Valley held Kansas City to 33.3 percent shooting on the night, and 21.4 percent shooting from beyond the arc. 

"I thought we had some players step up and make some big plays. Sam Loggins made moves near the end that were the most aggressive and decisive plays she has made all year," said head coach Cathy Nixon. "It was not a pretty basketball game and we didn't play well. Sometimes it's good to learn how to fight through adversity, and that seems to be a theme for this team, but if we can process this and learn from it in the game on Saturday or next week then it's all worthwhile."

Kansas City jumped out to an early 16-0 lead to start the game.  Georgia Agnew broke the run with a jump shot at the 10:36 marking the first points for the Wolverines and triggering a 12-0 run to pull UVU within four, 16-12.  Utah Valley held the Kangaroos to just four additional points in the final 10 minutes to end the half with a UMKC lead 20-16.

Seals hit a trey with 6:07 remaining to tie the game at 37. Utah Valley then took their first lead of the night on a lay in by Sam Loggins with 5:27 left to play, 39-37.  Kansas City answered on a lay in by Samantha Waldron to take back the lead with 2:27 remaining, 42-41.

UVU hit a trio of free throws, one by Spooner-Knight and two by Seals to retake the lead, 44-42, with 1:58 remaining.  Waldron hit a clutch layup to tie the game at 44 with eight seconds remaining.  Seals got a good look but could not connect on a jumper as time expired to head into overtime.

The Wolverines hit all five of their attempts from the field in overtime, and also tallied seven free throws to notch 17 points in the period, eight coming from Loggins.

Kansas City was led by Waldron with 19 points and Mitchell Grace who had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds. 

Utah Valley continues their homestand against Chicago State on Saturday at the PE Building for their last home game and senior night.