OREM, Utah — Utah Valley couldn't withstand a second half run from St. Thomas, falling 62-43 on Thursday in the UCCU Center.
Jaeden Brown led the Wolverines (1-5) with 15 points and five blocks while
Shay Fano added 12 points and eight rebounds.
UVU trailed by six midway through the third quarter but the Tommies (3-3) used a 20-2 run to end the third and start the fourth to pull away.
St. Thomas jumped out a 10-0 lead after the Wolverines missed their first 10 attempts from the field before Fano got UVU on the board and started a 13-0 run that spanned the end of the first and the beginning of the second quarter. Trailing 10-8 after one,
Kaylee Byon got things started in the second with a 3-pointer to give the Wolverines their first lead before Fano's third bucket of the game followed and made it 13-10. Utah Valley had a stretch of six makes in eight attempts that ended in a 15-12 advantage with 8:10 left until halftime.
St. Thomas responded, running off 11 straight to take a 23-15 lead before Fano again ended the run, this time with a 3-pointer, and later buried another triple to make it a 27-21 game with just under two minutes to go. The Tommies scored the last five points, including a corner three from Amber Scalia with just seconds left before the break. UVU got 12 first-half points from Fano but trailed 32-21 after 20 minutes.
Utah Valley got within six points after five straight points from Brown to make it 34-28. St. Thomas scored the final six points of the quarter and closed on a 9-2 run to build a 43-30 advantage after three quarters. Brown was 4-for-5 from the floor in the third and scored all nine Wolverine points.
The Tommies put the game out of reach with a big run to start the fourth with three different players hitting 3-pointers and Alexis Pratt knocking down two free throws to extend the run and make it 54-30 with 6:01 to go.
Sammy Opichka had 18 points for St. Thomas to lead all scorers, while both Opichka and Scalia hit a trio of 3-pointers on a 9-for-20 night from beyond the arc from the team. The Tommies were 22-for-50 (44%) overall while the Wolverines hit 18-of-53 (34%) from the field.
Eleyana Tafisi finished with six points and eight assists for Utah Valley while Brown also had three steals on her stat line.
The Wolverines will now make the trip to Logan to face Utah State on Saturday afternoon. Tip is set for 2 p.m. MT with the game airing on the Mountain West Network.
