STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Kaylee Byon scored 16 of her career-high 21 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as Utah Valley University picked up a 63-59 road win at Tarleton on Saturday in Wisdom Gym. Byon scored with under a second to go in regulation to force the extra frame and then added eight more points in the OT to help UVU snap an eight-game losing streak.
Shay Fano added 14 points,
Mae Afoa finished with nine,
Ally Criddle scored eight and
Eleyana Tafisi finished with seven points and six assists and iced the game with two free throws with just seconds to go.
"This team has been through so much and I'm just so proud of the way we persevered today," said UVU head coach
Dan Nielson. "We had so many players step up and make big-time plays and contribute to this win. It's tough to win on the road and this result was hard-earned and deserved."
Byon tied the game on a jumper from the free throw line that hit the front rim, touched the glass and then dropped through with under one second to go.
In overtime, the game was deadlocked at 51-51 when Criddle scored on a driving layup and Byon hit a jumper from the baseline to give UVU a 55-51 lead. The Wolverines (5-16, 2-8) then hit 8-of-10 from the line over the last 1:13 to secure the win. Utah Valley withstood a pair of late 3-pointers from the Texans (7-14, 1-9) with Tafisi putting the game away with four seconds left after hitting two foul shots.
The Wolverines had a 41-27 edge on the glass with Fano leading the way with a game-high nine while Criddle added six boards. Utah Valley was 24-for-50 (48%) and made 10-of-14 in the fourth quarter and OT combined. Tarleton finished the game at 35.8% (19-for-53).
Utah Valley scored the game's first six points with three different players making early field goals. Byon had five points in the opening quarter and gave UVU an 11-5 lead after rebounding her own miss at the line and hitting a jumper with 3:10 to go. The Texans finished the quarter with three consecutive makes from three including two from Tyler Jackson. Tarleton hit four 3-pointers in the opening quarter with nine of its 12 attempts from the field coming from beyond the arc.
The Wolverines were hampered by turnovers in the second quarter, with nine giveaways leading to nine of the Texans' points in the quarter. The Texans outscored UVU 12-5 in the second and led 26-16 at the break.
In the third, Tarleton led 28-18 when Byon hit a jumper and Afoa buried a three from the top of the arc to cut the deficit in half. Utah Valley trailed by eight, 33-25, when Fano scored back-to-back buckets on feeds from Tafisi to make it 33-29. Fano also hit a three with just 15 seconds to go in the quarter and UVU trimmed the deficit to four, 36-32, after three quarters.
Elina Tausinga got the Wolverines within two, 36-34, after battling for a bucket down low just over one minute into the fourth. The lead was back at four for Tarleton when Afoa hit a jumper from the elbow and Byon tied it on the next possession to make it 41-41 with just under 4:30 remaining.
Emilia Axelsson broke the tie with a big 3-pointer at the 3:06 mark to put the Texans back in front. Tarleton extended it to five with two free throws from Mayra Caicedo to make it 46-41. Byon got to the line with 1:07 remaining and cut it back to three and Utah Valley got a stop and the ball back with 43.6 seconds left.
Out of a timeout, Byon knocked down a baseline jumper from 15 feet out to get Utah Valley within a point, 46-45, with 34 seconds left. That was answered with a 3-pointer by Jenna Dick that gave the Texans a 49-47 lead with 10 seconds left. Byon then hit the game-tying jumper from the free-throw line with half of a second left to force overtime. Byon scored eight of her points in the fourth quarter.
Nya Mitchels led Tarleton with 14 points off the bench as she and Dick combined to score 26 of the team's 28 bench points.
The Wolverines will now head to Abilene Christian for a Monday matinee at 2 p.m. CT/1 p.m. MT. That game was originally scheduled for last Thursday but ice storms in the Dallas area forced the schedule change of that game and two others in women's WAC play.
