Know thy enemy: A preview of the week in UVU sports
The basketball teams of UVU are entering the portion of Western Athletic Conference play in which they will be playing their second games with conference foes. While the women will welcome Missouri – Kansas City and Chicago State to campus, the men will be wrapping up a three-game road swing on the same opponents’ home courts. Meanwhile, the wrestling team will play host to a top-25 squad as well as a Big 12 Conference foe.
The men’s basketball team will travel to Kansas City, Missouri to take on UMKC, who they beat at the UCCU Events Center earlier this season, 86-76. The Kangaroos have been a different team at home this year, where they got seven of their first 10 wins this season. In their first meeting, the Wolverines prevailed despite a 22-point effort from LaVell Boyd, UMKC’s leading scorer.
The Wolverines will end their road trip with a Saturday matinee in Chicago, Illinois, tipping off against CSU at 1:05 p.m. For UVU, it will be an attempt at payback after its home loss earlier in the year to CSU, a game which snapped a 16-game WAC losing streak for the Cougars. This time around, the Wolverines will need to do a better job on Fred Sims Jr. and Clemmye Owens, who torched them the first time with 39 combined points.
The first of UVU wrestling’s back-to-back home meets in the Lockhart Arena is Friday at 7 p.m. The Wolverines will welcome No. 22 Stanford, which started its season 8-2, including knocking off then-No. 14 Arizona State. Stanford also beat Boise State, a team that beat UVU earlier this season. The Cardinal has four nationally-ranked wrestlers, heavyweight Nathan Butler, Peter Galli (174), Keaton Subjeck (165) and Gabriel Townsell (125). Of the ranked opponents only Butler is higher than No. 15 in his class.
The second meet, taking place Saturday at 3 p.m., is against the University of Northern Colorado, a Big 12 opponent. The Bears started the season 1-6 and there are no ranked wrestlers from the school. Its lone win came against a struggling Boise State team, which hasn’t seen a win since the early-season victory against UVU. Northern Colorado’s closest loss was a 16-19 defeat to Iowa State. Its next closest loss was a 29-16 thrashing by North Dakota State.
The women’s basketball team has a chance to avenge its buzzer-beater defeat to UMKC Thursday in the Lockhart Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. The Kangaroos haven’t won a road game since Dec. 3 and have an overall road record of 2-6. They are led by Samantha Waldron, averaging 13.2 points per game.
CSU comes to Orem for a Saturday night showdown in the Lockhart Arena at 7 p.m. The Cougars have struggled mightily this season and sit in last place in the conference standings. UVU outpaced CSU 62-59 in an overtime thriller Jan. 12, overcoming an 18-point effort from Jessica Cerda.
Reporting by: Adam Cichoski, Ty Bianucci, Kaleb Searle