UTAH VALLEY HOSTS ANTELOPE VALLEY ON FRIDAY NIGHT IN HOME OPENER

• Utah Valley opens its home slate on Friday against NAIA foe Antelope Valley on Friday night at the UCCU Center. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
   
• Utah Valley's comeback attempt fell short as the Utah Valley dropped its season opener against Boise State, 76-56, on the road. Aimaq led the Wolverines with 15 points to go along with five rebounds. Harmon scored 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting off the bench to go along with five rebounds. Le'Tre Darthard added eight points on 2 of 5 shooting from deep while Blaze Nield chipped in five points and four rebounds and Tim Ceaser collected five rebounds.
   
• Utah Valley returns 10 players, including three starters from last year's squad that won a share of the WAC regular season title. Utah Valley went 11-11 overall and 9-4 in WAC play to claim just the second WAC title in team history. The team welcomes six new players to the team, including four transfers.
   
• The Wolverines welcome back reigning WAC Player of the Year and WAC Defensive Player of the Year Fardaws Aimaq. Aimaq became the first player in 40 years to average 15 or more rebounds per game last season as he averaged 15.0 boards, 13.9 points, and 1.7 blocks per game. In addition to his WAC Player of the Year and WAC Defensive Player of the Year honors, Aimaq was named to the NABC All-District First Team, the Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America Team, First Team All-WAC, WAC All-Defensive Team, WAC All-Newcomer Team. He also won the WAC's Joe Kearney Award, the Riley Wallace Award, and was named to the NetScouts All-International Team. Aimaq was also a finalist for the Lou Henson Player of the Year award.
   
• The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced that Utah Valley center Fardaws Aimaq has been named to the 2022 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Watch List. Named after Class of 1995 Hall of Famer and three-time NCAA Champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the annual honor in its eighth year recognizes the top centers in men's college basketball.
   
• Fardaws Aimaq was named the Western Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year by the media and Utah Valley was picked to finish fourth by the coaches and fifth by the media in the league's preseason polls. Aimaq was named to the preseason All-WAC first team and Trey Woodbury was selected to the preseason All-WAC second team in both the media and the coaches.
   
• Mark Madsen enters his third season as the head coach of the Wolverines. The two-time NBA champion, former Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach, and former Stanford basketball star went 11-11 during his second season with UVU and helped the team to just its second WAC regular season title, and its first championship since 2014. He is just the third head coach in UVU's Division I history. Madsen took  over the Utah Valley program last season after serving the past six seasons as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a two-time NBA champion as a player with the Lakers (2001 and 2002), and played for the Minnesota Timberwolves for six seasons. Madsen received a five-year extension on his contract in the offseason.

TICKET INFORMATION
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BROADCAST INFORMATION
Friday night's game against Antelope Valley will be streamed live on ESPN+, which is available on the ESPN app and at ESPNplus.com. Brandon Crow will be on the call and Josh Kallunki will handle the analyst duties. The game will also be broadcast over the air waves in Utah County game as Jim McCulloch, the radio Voice of the Wolverines, is in his 13th season with the team. 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 ANTELOPE VALLEY
Antelope Valley is an NAIA team that competes in the California Pacific Conference. The Pioneers were picked as the favorite to win the Cal Pac this season in the preseason coaches' poll. The Pioneers played only one game in 2020-21, topping San Diego Christian 96-91 in overtime on Nov. 12, before shutting down the program for the remainder of the season. UAV went into the pandemic year having won three consecutive Cal Pac titles, compiling a 37-5 conference record in that span. The team is currently receiving votes in the latest NAIA top-25 The team enters Friday night's matchup against Utah Valley with a 5-2 record. The Pioneers most recently dropped a 74-68 decision at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California on Nov. 5. Prior to its loss to Occidental, UAV had won two straight with wins over the California Institute of Technology and Bethesda. Junior guard Elias Ezenekwe leads UAV in scoring at 13.6 points a game to go along with 3.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists. Junior guard Tyler Murrell also averages double figures at 12.3 points a contest. Freshman forward Arik Nicholas leads the team on the boards, pulling down 6.8 rebounds a game. As a team, UAV averages 72.7 points a game.

SERIES HISTORY VS. ANTELOPE VALLEY
Utah Valley and Antelope Valley will meet up on the basketball hardwood for the fourth time on Friday night. The Wolverines took an 80-65 win the last time the two teams matched up on Dec. 28, 2019. UVU has reached the century mark in two of the three contests. Utah Valley holds a perfect all-time 60-0 record against non Division I teams.

All-Time Results vs. Antelope Valley (3-0)
Dec. 28, 2019    Utah Valley def. Antelope Valley, 80-65    Orem, Utah
Jan. 02, 2017    Utah Valley def. Antelope Valley, 102-63    Orem, Utah
Nov. 20, 2015    Utah Valley def. Antelope Valley, 104-60    Orem, Utah