UVU women start second half of conference play off on right foot
OREM – The UVU women’s basketball team started the second half of conference play with a 71-57 win over second-place UTRGV on Thursday afternoon.
The Wolverines improved to 11-12 overall and 4-4 in the WAC.
“I thought it was a great collective effort,” UVU head coach Cathy Nixon said. “Five kids in double figures. Defensively I thought we were really good.”
Five Wolverines scored in double digits with Mariah Seals and Sam Loggins leading the way with 14 points each. Deijah Blanks chipped in 12, Rebecca MaWhinney scored 11, and Georgia Agnew scored 10 to help a balanced Wolverine attack. Agnew also recorded nine rebounds.
UVU got out to an early 10-0 lead and led 16-8 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the lead jumped to as many as 14 points at 34-20 on a 3-pointer by Mariah Seals with 1:49 left to play in the half. UTRGV got a layup with 16 seconds left to make it 34-22 at the half.
The Wolverines continued to hang on to the lead in third period as they matched the Vaqueros shot for shot and led 47-40 at the end of the third.
One thing that UVU has struggled with this season is closing out games when they have the lead late. It almost looked like it would happen in the fourth quarter again when Bernesha Peters hit a 3-pointer with 7:40 left to play that brought the Vaqueros within one at 49-48. Peters led all scorers with 26 points.
“Peters got a little crazy on us,” Nixon said. “But Goff we were able to contain her a little bit and it was really complimentary to Mariah [Seals] for her effort on that.”
However, in front of 200 elementary school students on UVU Kids Day, the Wolverines didn’t let this one slip away. Georgia Agnew scored on a layup off a turnover and Rebecca MaWhinney hit a 3-pointer after a Sam Loggins block to push the lead to 56-48 and UVU never looked back. The Wolverines hit nine free throws down the stretch to seal the deal and pick up the win.
“The kids came with a sense of urgency that we need to be successful,” Nixon said. “They went on a 9-0 run there and I was really proud of the way our team responded to that. They got out in transition and got to the free throw line a few times. But I thought we dug our heals in on the defensive end and executed offensively.”
UVU will be back in action on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. MT when they host league-leading New Mexico State in the PE Building.
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