ABILENE, Texas—Le'Tre Darthard scored a game-high 18 points and knocked down some clutch free throws with 20 seconds to play to lead Utah Valley to a 66-62 road win over Abilene Christian on Saturday night at Moody Coliseum in Abilene, Texas. 
 
Utah Valley improves to 22-7 overall and keeps a one-game lead over Sam Houston in the WAC standings with a 13-3 record. The 13 wins ties the Wolverines with the 2013-14 team for the most WAC wins in program history. 

"At halftime, we talked a lot about keeping our composure in a hostile environment that was playing with some extra motivation because it was senior night," said Utah Valley head coach Mark Madsen. "Abilene Christian is a great team and we just needed to stay the course. We had too many turnovers in the first half and we cut those down in the second half and that helped us win tonight."

Utah Valley never led in the first half as Abilene Christian jumped out to a nine-point 25-16 lead at the 8:43 mark. UVU then used a 12-4 run over the next eight minutes to cut the ACU lead to just one point, 29-28, with 43 seconds to play in the half. The Wildcats knocked down a jumper at the end of the half to give ACU a 31-28 lead at the break.
 
Abilene Christian went up by six points, 36-30, just over two minutes into the second half. UVU responded with an 13-3 run that included a Trey Woodbury jumper that gave UVU its first lead of the game, 41-39, with 14:31 to play. UVU then held the lead over the next seven minutes until ACU hit a three to give the Wildcats the lead back, 54-52, with six minutes to go. The two teams then played through three ties and three lead changes to a 58-58 tie with 2:32 remaining. 
 
An Aziz Bandaogo dunk gave the Wolverines a six-point 64-58 lead with 37 seconds to play, but ACU's Immanuel Allen knocked down a three and was fouled before making the free throw to cut the UVU lead back to just two points, 64-62, with 20 seconds left to play. Darthard then knocked down a pair of free throws and UVU held ACU without a point the rest of the way to secure the 66-62 win.
 
Darthard scored his 18 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field and a perfect 7-of-7 mark from the charity stripe. He also dished out three assists with two rebounds and a pair of steals. 
 
Justin Harmon scored 12 points on a 5-of-11 clip from the field. He pulled down three rebounds with three assists and an assist. Bandaogo was also in double figures with 10 points to go along with five rebounds, one assist, and a block. 
 
Woodbury came off the bench to score nine points with eight rebounds, while Tim Fuller added eight points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting with seven rebounds, three blocks, and two assists. 
 
Utah Valley shot 50 percent (27-54) from the field on the night with a 28.6 percent (4-14) mark from long range. UVU held Abilene Christian to just a 37.7 (23-61) mark from the field, which included 34.5 percent (10-29) clip from three-point range. 
 
Utah Valley committed 15 turnovers on the night, but only had four in the second half. UVU forced ACU into 16 turnovers with 10 coming in the second half. The Wolverines outscored ACU 40-18 in the paint.
 
Airion Simmons and Allen led the Wildcats with 13 points apiece. 
 
Utah Valley now returns home to wrap up regular season play against UT Arlington on Wednesday and Stephen F. Austin on Friday at the UCCU Center. Both games will tip-off at 6 p.m. MT