UVU HOSTS NORTH DAKOTA ON SATURDAY AT UCCU CENTER
After claiming the MGM Main Event Middleweight championship this past week at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Utah Valley returns home from a five-game road swing to take on North Dakota on Saturday afternoon at the UCCU Center. Tip-off for Saturday's game against the Fighting Hawks is set for 4 p.m. (MST).

Jake Toolson scored 20 points and Ben Nakwaasah added a career-high 18 to lead Utah Valley to the MGM Main Event Middleweight title with an 87-72 win over Long Beach State on Wednesday afternoon at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. Jake Toolson led the Wolverines with 20 points on a perfect 8-for-8 clip from the field, including a 2-of-2 mark from beyond the arc and a perfect 2-of-2 performance from the free throw line. He also pulled down five rebounds and dished out four assists. Baylee Steele recorded a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double in the win.

Conner Toolson was named the MGM Main Event MVP after 19.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per game over the two games at the tournament. The senior guard shot 60.9 percent (14-of-23) from the field, including a 42.9 percent (6-of-14) clip from beyond the arc.

Redshirt junior center Baylee Steele pulled down a school-record 19 rebounds at BYU on Nov. 9. Steele's 19 boards breaks the previous single game UVU mark of 18 set by Jon Bell at Florida Gulf Coast on March 5, 2004. Geddes Robinson tied the 18-rebound mark on Jan. 28, 2012 against NJIT. The record stood for 14 years before Steele broke it on Nov. 9, 2018 at BYU.

Utah Valley currently owns the nation's third-longest active home win streak in the nation at 15 games. The Wolverines look to extend their win streak against North Dakota on Saturday.

Utah Valley returns just four letterwinners, including two starters from last year's squad that finished the season with a school-record 23 wins and a second-straight appearance at the College Basketball Invitational. Preseason All-WAC honorees Connor Toolson (12.1 ppg.) and Jake Toolson (10.9 ppg.) are back after combining to score an average of 23.0 points per game last season. The Wolverines return just 36 percent of its scoring from a season ago. Ben Nakwaasah (4.8 ppg.) and Richard Harward (1.3 ppg.) also return this season.

The Wolverines were selected to finish third by the media and fourth by the coaches in the WAC preseason poll. UVU received 162 points in the media poll to finish third behind No. 1 NM State and No. 2 Grand Canyon. The Wolverines received 43 points in the coaches' poll to fall just behind Seattle U in third at 45 points. NM State earned the top spot in the coaches' poll, followed by Grand Canyon in second.

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Saturday's game against North Dakota will be broadcast live on the WAC Digital Network at WACsports.com/watch. The game will also be streamed live via UVU's YouTube channel and on its Facebook page. Brandon Crow and Holton Hunsaker will be on the call. The game will also be broadcast over the radio waves as Jim McCulloch enters his ninth season as the radio play-by-play personality. Kullanki will be handling the color commentary duties on the radio. The radio broadcast will be aired live on ESPN 960AM radio. A live stream of the radio broadcast will also be available at ESPN960Sports.com.

ABOUT NORTH DAKOTA
North Dakota is in its first season as a member of the Summit League after previously being a member of the Big Sky Conference. The Fighting Hawks are coached by Brian Jones who is in his 13th season with the team. The team returns three starters and five letterwinners from last year's team that finished the season with a 12-20 record. The team welcomes eight new players to its roster this season. The team has opened the season with a 4-1 record, marking just the second time in the team's history that it has started a season with four wins in its first five games. The last time UND opened the season with a 4-1 record was in 2008. The team holds wins over Milwaukee, Minnesota Morris and Concordia. The team's lone setback was a 96-58 setback to 10th-ranked Kentucky. Senior forward Conner Avants leads the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game. Senior guard Cortez Seales follows closely behind at 13.0 points a contest. Freshman forward/center Philip Rebraca leads the team in rebounding, pulling down 8.5 boards a game. As a team, North Dakota is averaging 85.2 points per game while holding opponents to a 63.6 per game average. The Fighting Hawks are averaging nine threes per game.

SERIES HISTORY VS. NORTH DAKOTA
Utah Valley and North Dakota meet up on the basketball hardwood for the seventh time on Saturday afternoon. The two teams played six of their seven games against one another during their transition to NCAA Division I in the Great West Conference. The two teams played one of UVU's three quadruple overtime games in 2011 as the Wolverines defeated the Fighting Hawks, 107-96, in the four-overtime contest in Grand Forks on Jan. 20, 2011. UVU also played a quadruple OT game on Jan. 29, 2009, defeating Chicago State on the road,123-121, and again during the 2016-17 season in the semifinals of the WAC Tournament, falling 80-81 to CSU Bakersfield in quadruple overtime on March 10, 2017. UVU took an 83-75 overtime win over North Dakota last season in Grand Forks. UVU holds an all-time 2-1 record against North Dakota in games played at the UCCU Center. The last time the two teams met in Orem was on Jan. 21, 2012 with the Wolverines taking a 72-64 win.

All-Time Results vs. North Dakota (UVU leads 4-3)
Jan. 14, 2010    North Dakota def. Utah Valley, 67-62        Orem, Utah
Feb. 20, 2010    North Dakota def. Utah Valley, 74-58        Grand Forks, N.D.
Jan. 20, 2011    Utah Valley def. North Dakota, 107-96 (4OT)    Grand Forks, N.D.
Feb. 19, 2011    Utah Valley def. North Dakota, 67-64        Orem, Utah
Jan. 21, 2012    Utah Valley def. North Dakota, 72-64        Orem, Utah
March 3, 2012    North Dakota def. Utah Valley, 57-56        Grand Forks, N.D.
Nov. 25, 2017    Utah Valley def. North Dakota, 83-75 (OT)    Grand Forks, N.D
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UVU CLAIMS MGM MAIN EVENT TITLE WITH 87-72 WIN OVER LONG BEACH STATE
Jake Toolson scored 20 points and Ben Nakwaasah added a career-high 18 to lead Utah Valley to the MGM Main Event Middleweight title with a 87-72 win over Long Beach State on Wednesday afternoon at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.

Jake Toolson led the Wolverines with 20 points on a perfect 8-for-8 clip from the field, including a 2-of-2 mark from beyond the arc and a perfect 2-of-2 performance from the free throw line. He also pulled down five rebounds and dished out four assists. Nakwaasah scored his career-high 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor, including a 3-of-3 clip from long range. He also knocked down 3-of-4 free throws and pulled down five rebounds with five assists.
 
Conner Toolson scored 15 points, while Baylee Steele and Isaiah White also reached double figures with 14 and 13 points, respectively. As a team, Utah Valley shot a season-best 58 percent (29-of-50) from the field, including a 52 percent (11-of-21) mark from three-point range. Steele recorded a double-double with his 14 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Utah Valley and Long Beach State played through four lead changes and seven ties over the first 17 minutes of the first half. UVU then used back-to-back-to-back threes by Isaiah White, Ben Nakwaasah, and Conner Toolson to go on a 9-0 run and take a 40-28 lead with 1:22 left in the half. The Wolverines took a 41-34 advantage into the break.
 
The two teams played evenly through the first 12 minutes of the second half until UVU pushed its lead to 12 points, 63-51, on Conner Toolson and Nakwaasah threes. Toolson then gave UVU a 66-53 lead after knocking down a three with seven minutes to play. The Wolverines then out-scored LBSU 13-9 the rest of the way to secure the win.
 
Conner Toolson was named the MGM Main Event Middleweight MVP after scoring a combined 38 points over the two games at the tournament

CONNER TOOLSON NAMED MGM MAIN EVENT MVP
Conner Toolson was named the MGM Main Event Middleweight MVP after scoring 19.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per game over the wins over Hartford and Long Beach State. He shot 60.9 percent (14-of-23) from the field, including a 42.9 pecent (6-of-14) clip from long range.
 
UVU HOLDS NATIONS'S THIRD-BEST ACTIVE HOME WIN STREAK IN THE NATION
Utah Valley won a school-record 16 games at home last season, finishing the 2017-18 campaign with a school-record 16-1 record at home, surpassing the previous record of 14-1 set by the 2006-07 team. Utah Valley currently has the nation's third-longest active home win streak in the nation at 15 games. The Wolverines look to extend their win streak against North Dakota on Nov. 24.

Longest Active Home Win Streaks in the Nation
1. South Dakota  23 
T2. Charleston 18   
T2. Montana    18   
T2. Charleston 18
5. Utah Valley  15
6. Nebraska    14
7. Buffalo        14

HOME SWEET UCCU CENTER
Utah Valley holds an all-time 167-46 (78 percent) record in 13 seasons at the UCCU Center. The Wolverines are averaging 12.5 wins a season at the UCCU Center. UVU finished play at home last season with a school-record 16-1 record. The team holds the nation's third-best active home win streak in the country at 15 games.