UVU completes season sweep of UMKC

Baylee Steele scored 15 points along with 12 rebounds to complete a double-double

Photo by Johnny Morris

On Saturday, Feb. 23 at the UCCU Center support was shown for autism awareness night as well as honoring African culture for African Diaspora night. As Utah Valley University showed up with a big win over the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The Wolverines won by a score of 79-67.

The last time the ‘Roos visited the Wolverines was last January and they left town with a 95-59 blowout loss. Although it was nothing like last year’s drubbing of the ‘Roos, the Wolverines still shot an impressive 50% from the field on the night.

The defining moment of the game was in the second half when the ‘Roos came back to tie the game at 44 a piece. The Wolverines would then hit back-to-back threes to spark a 14-2 run and pull away to win by 12.

With the victory UVU won its 19 game of the season, just four wins shy of last season’s single-season win record. “We’ve won 19 of them which nobody thought we would do,” said UVU head coach Mark Pope. “These guys have played so far above prognostication this year.”

UVU had four players in double figures but the man of the evening was junior guard Baylee Steele. He finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds, which was his fifth double-double on the season.

“So I’m a little pissed at Baylee because I told him 15 rebounds, he only got 12. But he got 15 points and he’s always thinking scoring, so he might’ve misheard me and thought I said 15 points,” said Pope jokingly. “But man this kid played with a lot of passion today, he’s got such a big heart.”

The Wolverines are now at 8-4 in conference play with just four games left to play in the regular season. UVU will have a quick turnaround and travel on short rest to play a make-up game against Seattle University on Tuesday, Feb. 26.