UTAH VALLEY TRAVELS TO SUNSHINE STATE TO FACE SOUTH FLORIDA IN CBI QUARTERFINAL
Utah Valley has advanced to the quarterfinals of the College Basketball Invitational for a third straight year after knocking off CSUN on March 19 in Orem. UVU now travels to Tampa, Florida to take on USF on Monday night. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. MT / 7 p.m. ET

Baylee Steele scored a career-high 19 points to go along with 16 rebounds to lead Utah Valley to the 92-84 win over CSUN in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational on March 19 at the UCCU Center in Orem. Jake Toolson scored a game-high 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor, including a pair of threes. He also knocked down 7-of-8 free throws. Toolson dished out four assists to go along with four rebounds, two steals and a block. Isaiah White and Richard Harward were also in double figures with 15 points each. Ben Nakwaasah led the Wolverines with five assists.

This year's CBI appearance marks UVU's fifth showing at a national postseason tournament. It also marks the team's third straight appearance at the College Basketball Invitational as the Wolverines made a run to the Final Four of the tournament in 2017 and defeated Eastern Washington at home before losing at San Francisco in the quarterfinals in 2018.

Utah Valley went 1-1 at the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas, defeating No. 7 Kansas City, 71-64, in the quarterfinals before falling to Grand Canyon, 78-74, in the semifinals. Conner Toolson was named to the WAC's All-Tournament team after averaging 18.5 points and 4.0 rebounds a game.

Utah Valley's Jake Toolson was named this season's Western Athletic Conference men's basketball Player of the Year, while Wyatt Lowell has earned WAC Freshman of the Year honors, the league office announced on Tuesday.  Toolson becomes the first player in UVU history to earn WAC Player of the Year honors, while Lowell is the first UVU player to receive the league's Freshman of the Year honor.

With its win over Kansas City on March 13, Utah Valley has broken the school record for wins in a season at 24. The team surpassed last season's win total of 23. It marks the first time in school history that the team has won 20-plus games in back-to-back seasons. With its win over CSUN, UVU now has a school-record 25 victories this season.

Conner Toolson became just the eighth player in UVU history to score 1,000 points. The senior guard knocked down a shot from long range with 14:38 remaining in the second half against Sam Houston State on Dec. 22 to reach the 1,000-point mark. He is now fifth on the all-time scoring list with 1,218 points.

According to data provided by Sports-Reference.com, Jake Toolson is the only player in the country that has played in 20 or more games while shooting better than 53 percent from the field (53.9 percent), 44 percent from three-point range (44.7 percent), and 85 percent from the free throw line (85.1 percent) while averaging 15 or more points a game. Such a season has only been accomplished 20 times since 1992. Of that group, only 10 players in that group scored over 300 total points in a season. Toolson is one of those 10 players. The junior guard is in rare company.

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Monday night's CBI quarterfinal game at South Florida will be broadcast live on BullsVision, which is available at GoUSFBulls.com/watch. UVU has entered into a new partnership with KSLtv. The KSLtv app will be streaming all home UVU men's basketball games live. All home games will also be streamed live through the GoUVU YouTube channel, and on the GoUVU Facebook page. Monday night's game will also be broadcast over the radio waves as Jim McCulloch enters his ninth season as the voice of the Wolverines. Jason Erickson 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.

UVU MAKES FIFTH APPEARANCE IN A NATIONAL POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT
The bid to play in the College Invitational Tournament marks Utah Valley's fifth appearance in a postseason national tournament and third straight appearance at the CBI. The Wolverines played in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) against California in 2014 and in the CollegeInisder.com Tournament against Weber State in 2012. UVU picked up its first-ever national postseason wins in 2017 with victories over Georgia Southern and Rice en route to a loss at eventual champion Wyoming in the CBI Final Four. Last year's first round CBI game against Eastern Washington was the first national postseason tournament home game in UVU history.

JAKE TOOLSON EARNS NABC ALL-DISTRICT 6 HONORS
Utah Valley junior guard Jake Toolson has been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District 6 Team. Toolson earned a first team selection on the team. The WAC Player of the Year and First Team All-WAC honoree averages 15.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He leads the WAC in three-point field goal percentage (44.7) and ranks third in both field goal percentage (53.9) and free throw percentage (85.1). Toolson currently holds a 44.7 percent mark from long range this season, connecting on an impressive 68-of-152 shots from deep. The All-District teams were selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC in NCAA Division I.

CONNER TOOLSON NAMED TO WAC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Conner Toolson was named to the 2019 WAC All-Tournament Team for his performance at the 2019 Western Athletic Conference Tournament last week. Toolson scored a team-high 16 points in Utah Valley's 71-64 quarterfinal win over Kansas City. Toolson connected on 8-of-17 shots from the floor, including a pair of threes. He was a perfect 3-of-3 from the charity stripe and registered a pair of key steals in 34 minutes of play. Toolson then scored a team-high 16 points with seven rebounds and a steal in the 78-74 setback to Grand Canyon in the tournament semifinal. Over his two games at the tournament, Toolson averaged 18.5 points while shooting 43.3 percent from the field, 29.4 percent from three, and 100 percent from the free throw line. He also averaged 4.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. Utah Valley will likely continue its season in a national postseason tournament for a third-straight season. The Wolverines will find out tonight which tournament the team will be playing in.

JAKE TOOLSON NAMED WAC PLAYER OF THE YEAR, LOWELL EARNS WAC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR HONORS
Utah Valley's Jake Toolson has been named the Western Athletic Conference men's basketball Player of the Year, while Wyatt Lowell has earned WAC Freshman of the Year honors, the league office announced on Tuesday. Toolson (Gilbert, Arizona) becomes the first player in UVU history to earn WAC Player of the Year honors, while Lowell (Gilbert, Arizona) is the first UVU player to receive the league's Freshman of the Year honor. Toolson was named the WAC Player of the Year after posting five games with 20 or more points in WAC play. During league play, he ranked third in the WAC in three-point percentage (47.4), free throw percentage (87.3), and three-pointers per game (2.3). He also ranked fourth in both scoring (16.7) and field goal percentage (54.0) and sixth in minutes per game (33.8). Toolson was named WAC Player of the Week once this season. Toolson was also named to the All-WAC First Team. Toolson is the first player from UVU to earn the WAC's top honor. His uncle, Danny Ainge (BYU), won the award in 1989. Other notable previous WAC Player of the Year honorees include Tim Hardaway (UTEP, '89), Keith Van Horn (Utah, '95, '96, '97), Andre Miller (Utah, '99), Nick Fazekas (Nevada, '05, '06, '07), and Pascal Siakam (NM State, 2016). Lowell earns WAC Freshman of the Year honors after leading all WAC freshmen in scoring (5.4), rebounding (3.0) and steals (0.5) in WAC play. He scored in double-digits in WAC games three times with two starts. Lowell becomes the first player in UVU history to earn the WAC Freshman of the Year honor.

ABOUT USF
USF enters Monday night's matchup with a 20-13 overall record. The team tied for seventh in the American Athletic Conference with a 8-10 record. The Bulls defeated Stony Brook, 82-79, in overtime on March 20 to advance to the CBI quarterfinal matchup against Utah Valley. The team has dropped two of its last three games, including an 80-73 setback to UConn in the AAC Tournament first round. Sophomore guard David Collins leads the team in scoring at 15.8 points per game. Junior guard Laquincy Rideau and freshman forward Alexis Yetna also average double figures at 12.8 and 11.9 points a game, respectively. Yetna also leads the team on the boards, pulling down 9.8 rebounds a game. As a team, USF averages 72.5 points per game while limiting opponents to a 67.4 points per game average. The Bulls are outrebounding their opponents by an average of 6.9 boards per game.

SERIES HISTORY VS. USF
Utah Valley and USF meet up on the basketball hardwood for the first time in the two team's history. The Wolverines have played two games against teams from the American Athletic Conference. UVU dropped a 92-72 decision at Cincinnati on Dec. 11, 2010 before taking an 84-71 loss at Houston on Nov. 14, 2011.

UVU ADVANCES TO CBI QUARTERFINALS WITH 84-72 WIN OVER CSUN
Baylee Steele scored a career-high 19 points to go along with 16 rebounds to lead Utah Valley to a 92-84 win over CSUN in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational on March 19 at the UCCU Center.
 
Utah Valley now advances to the CBI quarterfinals to face the winner of South Florida and Stony Brook on March 25 at a location to be determined following Wednesday night's CBI games.
 
Trailing 20-14, Utah Valley went on a 9-2 run capped off by an Isaiah White dunk to take a 23-22 lead with 11:36 remaining in the first half. The Wolverines then took a 34-32 lead with five minutes to go and then used scored 10 unanswered points to take a 44-32 advantage with 1:50 left in the half. The Matadors then scored back-to-back threes as part of an 8-0 run to close the half to cut the UVU lead to a 44-40 advantage at the break.
 
UVU and CSUN played evenly through the first 13 minutes of the second half as UVU held on to a five-point lead, 73-68, with 7:42 to play. Hanging on to a 78-75 lead with five minutes to play, UVU scored four straight points to extend its lead to seven points, 82-75, with 3:33 remaining. The Matadors cut it to three points, 84-81, with 1:48 to play, but UVU outscored CSUN 8-3 down the stretch to claim the 92-84 win.
 
Steele scored his career-high 19 points on a 6-of-8 clip from the floor, including shot from long range. His 16 rebounds are the second most he has pulled down this season.
 
Jake Toolson scored a game-high 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor, including a pair of threes. He also knocked down 7-of-8 free throws. Toolson dished out four assists to go along with four rebounds, two steals and a block. Isaiah White and Richard Harward were also in double figures with 15 points each. Ben Nakwaasah led the Wolverines with five assists on the night.
 
As a team, Utah Valley shot 45 percent from the floor, 38 percent from three, and 78 percent from the free throw line. The Wolverines held CSUN to a 41 percent clip from the field and a 25 percent mark from three. UVU outrebounded CSUN 49-34.