The 2020 WAC men’s and women’s basketball tournament has officially been cancelled, among many other conference tournaments across America, due to the COVID-19 outbreak scare. The tournament was set to take place at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada from March 11-14.
In this WAC Weekly, we’ll touch on baseball and softball finally springing into action, men’s and women’s basketball prepping for WAC Vegas play, and UVU wrestling heading into the Big 12 wrestling tournament.
An early four-run lead wasn’t enough cushion for the Utah Valley baseball team in the Crosstown Clash. Brigham Young University used five unanswered runs the rest of the way on Tuesday, March 3 for a 5-4 comeback victory in Provo.
Jabari Rice at the buzzer. That’s the phrase that ended the game between Utah Valley and New Mexico State at the Pan American Center. The NMSU sophomore guard saved the day in what would have been a sensational win for UVU on the road. The final score on Saturday, Feb. 15 was 84-82.
Going into this game, UVU had won a whopping 15 straight games over UTRGV. The last time the Vaqueros were able to knock off the Wolverines was a two-point win in January of 2013 in Edinburg.
“They’ve got it all.” “It was easy for them to get there.” “They don’t have to work as hard now.” “They’re athletes so they probably don’t focus much on school anyways.” Those are phrases often associated with student athletes. If you know Utah Valley University athletes, you’d know it’d be hard for those phrases to fit them — especially UVU wrestlers Koy Wilkinson, a junior, and Chase Trussell, a freshman.
After dropping both a home dual the weekend prior to No. 22 Stanford University, and a quick turnaround road dual at Wyoming University two days later, Utah Valley attempted to rebound in a Big 12 matchup. It was on Thursday night, Jan. 30 that the Wolverines dropped yet another dual this time to the Air Force Academy in a 22-14 thriller.
The victory for UVU in Phoenix was a rather big one, having lost their previous five games at GCU. UVU’s last win at GCU Arena prior to Saturday night came on Feb. 6, 2014, when they won 68-79. However, the ‘Lopes still hold a now 10-6 all-time series record over UVU.
Spring semester is now in session and WAC winter sports has hit its midway point. There have been successes and questionable disappointment seen throughout the first two full weeks of conference play. As a result, the question needs to be asked: Who’s been a winner, who’s been a loser and who’s been improving?
Lynch recently finished up his final cross country season in 2019, a year where he dominated statistically. He ended the WAC season repeating in the 8K race at the WAC Championships and took home WAC Men’s Athlete of the Year honors for the second consecutive season. His victory helped the men’s team win the championship for the fifth time in seven years.