Know thy enemy
Photo by Jesse Sanchez
The Utah Valley University basketball teams will start the week with a doubleheader at the UCCU Center Wednesday. The men will stay at home for the rest of the weekend, while the women head up Interstate 15 to Salt Lake City. The wrestling team is off until after Thanksgiving.
Get to know your foe with a preview of the week’s events.
The men’s basketball team hosts Idaho State Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in its home opener. UVU made the trip to Holt Arena last season and reached the century mark against the Bengals in a 100-76 win. Despite the loss, ISU finished the season fourth in the Big Sky Conference with an overall record of 16-15 and 11-7 in the Big Sky. The Wolverines will have their hands full with point guard Ethan Telfair—brother of former NBA point guard Sebastian Telfair—who averaged 20.2 points in his junior season with the Bengals.
UVU will host Division III Benedictine at Mesa Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Redhawks started their season two weeks before UVU, so they’ll likely be more polished as a unit after winning three of their first four games. However, top to bottom UVU will be a much more talented group and shouldn’t have any problems in a game that will allow the team to nitpick its deficiencies going forward.
The women’s basketball team will play Weber State at the UCCU Center in a Wednesday matinee starting at 3:30 p.m. The Wildcats return three starters from last year’s squad that finished sixth in the Big Sky Conference with an overall record of 23-12 and conference record of 11-7. The Wildcats edged the Wolverines by a final score of 61-56 in last season’s meeting at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
The Wolverines will make the short trip up to Salt Lake City to take on Utah at the Jon M. Huntsman Center Saturday at 5 p.m. Utah played to an 18-15 overall record in the 2015-16 season and played to a seventh-place finish with an 8-10 record in Pac-12 play. Despite a poor conference record, the Utes will hit the court running with four starters returning to the roster from last season.
I’m a Pacific Northwest guy who loves his Pacific Northwest sports. An amateur movie buff who prefers the disc to digital. Chasing the sports writing dream while I geek out on Assassin’s Creed.