Women's Basketball | 1/14/2016 12:44:00 PM
OREM, Utah—After dropping the opening pair of WAC contests on the road, the Utah Valley University women's basketball team will return home for three straight games, beginning with conference home opener Grand Canyon on Saturday Jan. 16 at 3 p.m. MT in the PE Building.
The Wolverines (7-10) dropped their WAC opener at New Mexico State on Jan. 7 73-68 before traveling to Texas Rio Grande Valley and dropping a 61-48 decision in Edinburg, Texas.
Grand Canyon leads the series 4-2 all time, splitting last year's contest with a 52-50 Wolverine win at home last January, and an Antelope victory 60-50 in Phoenix (Feb. 14, 2015).
"We are looking forward to our first conference game at home, but right now we are focusing on us," head coach
Cathy Nixon said. "We need to start playing better, and Grand Canyon is a challenging team. They have been competitive and they are going to come here and play hard. Jessica Gajewski is one of the best three-point shooters in the conference and it will be a defensive challenge for us. We are glad to have had a week to prepare and we are looking forward to a good game."
The Antelopes (8-10) enter the contest after dropping their opening pair of WAC contests against UTRGV 52-28, and New Mexico State 60-58 last week. The contest against Utah Valley is the third of three straight road games for the Lopes.
The Lopes ended their non-conference schedule with an 8-8 record, and were selected to finish in fifth place by the coaches and the media in the conference preseason polls.
Grand Canyon is led by Jessica Gajewski averaging 12.2 points per contest and Cheyenne Hedrington with 7.9 rebounds per game. The Antelopes have two other scorers in double-digits with Hedrington earning 11.8 per game and Courtney Hayes earning 10.4 per game. Hayes is also pacing the Western Athletic Conference with a 5.9 assists average and 2.7 steals per game.
The contest will be streamed live on the WAC Digital Network, and a StatBroadcast will be available. The contest is slated for 3 p.m. MT in the PE Building and tickets are on sale in the UCCU Center ticket office.
