UVU women’s basketball: Wolverines run away from Thunderbirds in 3rd quarter

Spooner-Knight scores career high 27 points in UVU win

Brad Curnow | Sports Writer | @jojocornrow

OREM, Utah – The Utah Valley University women’s basketball defeated the Southern Utah Thunderbirds 70-58 in front of a split crowd at the UCCU Center Tuesday night. The Wolverines improved to 2-1 on the season, including 2-0 at home.

Rahaiah Spooner-Knight led all scorers on the night with a career-high 27 points in 27 minutes. UVU shot 36.2 percent from the field, compared to SUU’s 33.8 percent.

“To be aggressive,” Spooner-Knight said about her approach Tuesday night. “I think this last month I’ve struggled with it, and so this week I was trying to be aggressive and get in the mindset that no one can take something away from me. It’s just myself.”

The Wolverines and Thunderbirds played to an 11-11 tie after the first quarter before SUU went on a 10-0 run for the first 1:50 of the second period. Sam Loggins stopped the bleeding straight out of a UVU timeout with a layup that sparked a 17-5 Wolverine run spanning five minutes of play.

Georgia Agnew closed out the half for UVU with a deep 3-pointer to take a 37-32 lead into the locker room. Agnew finished the night with 15 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds.

The Wolverines took control of the game in the third quarter led by an 11-point outburst from Rhaiah Spooner-Knight. Behind Spooner-Knight, UVU carried a 58-42 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Thunderbirds made a run in the final quarter and cut the lead to as few as seven points with 1:10 to play. Georgia Agnew iced the game at the free throw line on consecutive trips down the court to put the game away.

“It was great to get a win over what I think is a good team down at Southern Utah,” head coach Cathy Nixon said. “They’ve had our number the last several years so it was nice to get a W tonight.”

The Wolverines travel to Idaho to take on the Boise State Broncos Thursday night at 7 p.m. MT.