OREM, Utah—Maria Carvalho scored a career-high 23 points as Utah Valley University won the first of two games against Grand Canyon University, 63-51, on Friday afternoon the UCCU Center. The win was the fifth straight for the Wolverines (7-3, 5-2) who drew even with the Lopes (13-4, 5-2) for second in WAC play. The teams will meet again on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
 
Carvalho also added six rebounds and four assists while converting on 8-for-15 from the floor. Josie Williams had a double-double with 14 points—on 6-of-8 shooting—and 12 rebounds and Shay Fano added a season-high 11 rebounds for the Wolverines, who won the battle on the boards, 42-21.
 
"I'm really proud of our team. Grand Canyon is really good. They have that record for a reason and Coach Miller runs a really tough system and you can see the mindset she's put into her team," said UVU head coach Dan Nielson. "The thing with this year is that we can enjoy this for about an hour but then we're back to watching film and right back at it. They're going to make some adjustments so we've really got to be ready. But I'm definitely very happy with the win." 
 
The Wolverines led 40-36 after three and outscored Grand Canyon 23-15 in the final quarter of play. Carvalho had 10 of her 23 in the fourth including a dagger three with 1:36 remaining that pushed a six-point lead to nine, 60-51. The 3-pointer answered a last-ditch effort from the Lopes, who had trimmed an 11-point deficit to six with 2:01 left.
 
Utah Valley shot 47.9% from the field while limiting Grand Canyon to 33.3%. Nehaa Sohail joined Carvalho and Williams in double figures with 10 and Madison Grange scored seven points off the bench. Kayla Anderson added six points as she and Fano both dished out five assists.
 
Tavia Rowell led Grand Canyon with 12 points, hitting 3-for-5 from three, while Tiarra Brown added 11 points and Laura Piera had game-highs of nine assists and six steals.
 
Utah Valley built a 13-5 lead in the opening quarter and led 13-7 after one. The game was tied 3-3 when Sohail knocked down a three and Carvalho followed with a layup two possessions later. It was 8-5 when Williams converted on a pair of layups to extend the lead to eight with 2:24 to go. The Wolverines had a 12-4 edge on the glass after 10 minutes of play. 
 
UVU scored the first six points of the second, on 3-pointers from Sohail and Carvalho to take a 19-7 lead. Carvalho scored out of a timeout to give the Wolverines a 23-11 lead before the Lopes got hot and scored eight straight—including a pair of treys from Rowell—to get within four, 23-19. Grange helped push the lead to six by the break, 28-22. The Wolverines outrebounded GCU 22-8 in the opening half, including 6-0 on the offensive glass.

Grand Canyon continued to shoot the ball out of the break, starting the half on an 8-2 run to tie it at 30-30 less than three minutes in. The game was tied 34-34 when Grange started a 6-0 that was capped by consecutive layups from Carvalho to force a GCU timeout, before the Wolverines entered the fourth with a four-point advantage.