OREM, Utah — Utah Valley University couldn't recover from a slow start in a 68-53 loss to WAC leader Stephen F. Austin on Thursday in Lockhart Arena.
Josie Williams earned her 14th double-double for UVU with 15 points and 14 rebounds and became the ninth player in Utah Valley's NCAA Division I era to score 1,000 career points.
The Wolverines (9-11, 4-5) couldn't buy a basket early with only a
Kayla Anderson 3-pointer accounting for their first-quarter total on the offensive end of the floor. The Ladyjacks (18-3, 9-0) shot 60% in the first quarter had a commanding 21-3 lead after 10 minutes of play en route to their 10th straight win.
"Obviously they're a really good team for a reason so give them credit, but I was really disappointed with how we came out," said UVU head coach
Dan Nielson. "We were timid and weren't executing the things we worked on all week. Some of that was what they did but we also had some looks around the basket we didn't take care of and we had some breakdowns defensively. I was pleased with the last three quarters but our goal is to compete with the best teams in the league and we've got to be more consistent with our performance."
Williams notched point 1,000 at the 6:26 mark of the second quarter on the first of two free throws. A 7-2 run by the Wolverines cut the lead down to 33-18 after open threes from
Madison Grange and
Babalu Stewart. The scoring continued with
Tahlia White finishing a contested layup and free throws from Williams.
Utah Valley had back-to-back buckets from Grange, who had 14 points on the night, and White hit from deep early in the third quarter to cut the SFA lead down to 44-27. Following a pair of free throws from
Maria Carvalho, Williams and
Megan Jensen used points in the paint to cut the Ladyjack lead down to 15 with 1:57 left in the third quarter.
Williams had six of her 15 points in the fourth, including four free throws. UVU shot 80% (16-20) from the free-throw line while SFA was 14-for-18 from the stripe. A short 5-0 UVU run late in the fourth again trimmed the lead to 15, 62-47, after a Grange 3-pointer.
Eleyana Tafisi provided some energy off the bench for UVU, finishing with four steals including one that led to a breakaway layup late in the contest.
Aiyana Johnson led a balanced attack from the Ladyjacks with 14 points and Zya Nugent added 10. Stephen F. Austin took advantage of 21 UVU turnovers, turning them into 27 points.
The Wolverines will close out the four-game homestand with the first-ever meeting with Sam Houston coming up on Saturday, February 5th at 2p.m. MT inside Lockhart Arena. UVU heads out on the road starting Thursday, February 10th at Grand Canyon and Saturday, February 12th at New Mexico State.
