CEDAR CITY, Utah — Utah Valley came up just short in its attempt to pick up a road win at WAC leader Southern Utah on Wednesday, falling 70-66 in the American First Event Center.
 
Kaylee Byon scored a career-high 19 points, Mae Afoa also set a new career high with 13 points and Shay Fano added 11 points and eight rebounds.
 
"I'm proud of the effort we left out on the floor tonight. Southern Utah is a good team and we battled them in tough conditions and gave ourselves a chance to win," said UVU head coach Dan Nielson. "We had a lot of girls step up tonight. I like the signs I'm seeing as the season goes and I'm confident we'll have some results go our way."
 
The Wolverines (4-12, 1-4) were within three points in the waning moments of the game but couldn't get the game-tying three to drop and the T-Birds (8-7, 4-0) got a free-throw in the final seconds to put it away.
 
The Wolverines were whistled for 28 fouls in the game and had two starters — Eleyana Tafisi and Shay Fano — foul out. Tafisi picked up her fifth foul after just 14 minutes on the court, fouling out early in the fourth, and Fano was whistled for her fifth with 3:38 left when she was called for an offensive foul down low with the score 64-62.
 
In the first quarter, Afoa scored seven points in the first four minutes to help UVU build a 10-4 lead. She scored five points in a span of 20 seconds, scoring down low with her left hand to make and then taking a feed from Byon for a layup and a foul, with her free throw giving the Wolverines the six-point lead.
 
The T-Birds came back with 10 straight points before Byon hit a jumper to make it 18-16, but Daylani Ballena hit a corner 3-pointer with a minute to go in the quarter to give SUU a 21-16 lead after one.
 
SUU led by as much as nine in the second quarter, but the Wolverines chipped away. After four points in the first, Byon had five in the second and led the team with nine at the break. Shay Fano and Byon hit consecutive 3-pointers, turning a 30-26 deficit into a 32-30 lead with 1:49 left before halftime. UVU held a 33-32 advantage before Samantha Johnston hit a three with just two seconds left in the second to give SUU a 35-33 lead at the break.
 
In the third, UVU trailed 40-35 when Afoa and Tafisi scored consecutive layups to get the Wolverines within a point. Southern Utah stretched the lead to eight, 50-42, on a Cherita Daugherty layup. The Wolverines closed the quarter on a 7-0 run with five coming from Fano, who had a steal and then buried a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to get UVU within a point, 54-53, after three quarters.
 
Fano tied the game at 56-56 with another 3-pointer, her third of the game, in the opening minute of the fourth. After SUU scored four straight to take a 60-56 lead, Abby Conlee went baseline and hit a reverse layup and then followed a miss with a putback on the offensive glass to tie it at 60-60 with 6:31 remaining.

Megan Jensen led all scorers with 22 points while Daugherty finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists. Daugherty scored 10 of SUU's 16 points in the fourth quarter. 

The Wolverines return home Saturday to host Abilene Christian at 2 p.m. MT in the UCCU Center.