OGDEN, Utah –Utah Valley women's basketball dropped its season opener to Weber State, 75-57, after a pair of big second and fourth quarter Wildcat runs Friday afternoon inside the Dee Events Center.
UVU senior guard
Taylor Christensen, who scored 10 second-quarter points, and sophomore guard Gaby Leos each tallied team highs of 13 points and five rebounds on the evening. However, the Wildcats (1-0) used a pair of second and fourth quarter runs to overcome the Wolverines (0-1) pair double-digit scorers with 11 three-pointers for the night.
"I thought the first and third quarters we played pretty well," said Nixon. Our focus has to go more on the defensive end and in our rebounding us. They outrebounded us with 16 offensive rebounds. We knew they were going to shoot the three and needed to limit their possessions on offense to one possession, and I think that's what made the difference in the game."
The Wolverines enjoyed an early 15-6 lead thanks to a quick 9-0 run following a stretch of three straight points from Leos in the first quarter. Freshman guard
Sophia Jacobsson then hit a pull-up jumper at the elbow to extend the UVU's lead to its largest of the game at 17-6.
UVU ended the opening quarter with a 20-12 lead after senior guard
Mariah Seals scored six points and junior guard
Britta Spencer poured in five points on 2-of-2 shooting in the period. The pair of Wolverine guards combined to score nine of the squad's first 10 points of the contest.
Weber State responded with a 9-4 run that stretched into the second quarter, as Llaryn Brooks hit a three at the end of the first quarter and added a pair of free throws for her first points of the game. Center Kayla Watson added another two shots from the free-throw line to cut into UVU's lead at 22-15.
Christensen helped UVU maintain a lead at 27-21 with the squad's first seven points of the quarter. With 7:53 left in the half, Christensen scored five of those seven points on a layup and her lone three-pointer of the game within a 25-second span.
Leos followed Christensen's offensive burst with a pair of free throws to put the Wolverines up by six, 29-23.
The Wildcats then received back-to-back three pointers from Brooks, who evened the score at 29-29 and then gave her team the lead with her third and final three with 3:24 remaining in the second quarter.
At the beginning of the second half, Spencer helped the Wolverines push back with a quick 7-0 spurt after her steal led that led to a fastbreak layup brought the Wolverines to within 43-39. Prior to Spencer's score, Leos nailed a three-pointer with 7:31 in the third quarter to cut the deficit to four following a
Leya Harvey bucket inside a minute earlier.
Joining Leos and Christensen in the double-digit scoring column for Utah Valley, Spencer finished the game with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and a 2-of-3 clip from beyond the arc.
An 11-3 run at the end of the third and into the fourth quarter extended the WSU lead to 57-46, as junior guard Jaiamoni Welch-Coleman found a cutting Briana Gray for a layup before the Wildcats ran away with the victory. In addition, Wildcats closed the game with four three-pointers in the final quarter to seal their fate.
Despite dropping the rebound battle to WSU, the Wolverines enjoyed an advantage in steals with nine and forced the Wildcats into 21 turnovers compared to 16 of their own. The Wolverines recorded five of their nine steals in the first half.
UVU will continue it's season-opening stretch of five straight road games with the first game of a back-to-back at Portland on Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. MT. The Wolverines then travel to Corvallis, Ore., to play Oregon State on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. MT.
