OPENING TIP
Utah Valley University hosts the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the UCCU Center. The game will air on ESPN+. The Wolverines (5-9, 0-5) suffered a 72-64 defeat to UT Arlington on Thursday night in WAC play and are in search of their first conference win this season. UT Rio Grande Valley (2-12, 1-4) notched its first conference win on Thursday at Seattle U.

UVU continues to lead the WAC while ranking 15th in the country with 12.1 steals per game while also holding the best turnover margin (+5.0) and forcing the most turnovers (22) per game in the conference.  

LAST TIME OUT
A fourth-quarter comeback attempt ran out of time for Utah Valley in a 72-64 loss to UT Arlington on Thursday in the UCCU Center. Jenna Dick matched her season high for the second straight game, leading UVU with 15 points and a career-high five steals, while Tahlia White added a season-high 14. The Wolverines used a 15-4 run in the fourth to trim a 17-point deficit to six after Dick hit one of her four 3-point makes with 3:53 to go to make it 63-57, but that's as close as Utah Valley would get. The Mavericks got game-highs of 20 points and eight rebounds from Adela Valkova while Avery Brittingham added 17 points and seven rebounds to lead UTA to its sixth straight win. 

ABOUT THE OPPOSITION
UT Rio Grande Valley enters Saturday's game coming off of an 84-77 road win at Seattle U to notch its first WAC win of the season. The Vaqueros are 2-2 in their last four games, including a road win at Sam Houston in the WAC/Conference USA Challenge. UTRGV is led by Iyana Dorsey's 15.9 points per game while Kade Hackerott is averaging 10.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. 

The Wolverines lead the all-time series 21-16 as Saturday marks the 38th meeting between the schools, the most of any program that UVU has faced since the move to NCAA Division I in 2003-04. UVU is 12-6 at home and 8-10 on the road and also won the only WAC Tournament contest between the teams, doing so in the 2021-22 season.

UP NEXT
Next week, Utah Valley will host Grand Canyon on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. in the UCCU Center before heading to St. George for the Old Hammer Rivalry, where they'll face Utah Tech on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 2 p.m.