Wolverines remain winless in conference play

Julie Smith finished with 27 points but the Wolverines dropped another conference game. Kurt Poecker/UVU Review

The lady Wolverines took another conference loss, 71-61 on Thursday against Texas Pan-American, facing them for the first time this season.

Senior Julie Smith led the Wolverines in scoring with 27 points and six rebounds in 38 minutes of play. Sophomore Jenna Johnson added 10 points, Sophomore Erika Newbold added eight points and freshman Kaycee Mansfield came off the bench to contribute six points and six rebounds.

During the first half, UTPA took a small lead, but Utah Valley caught up to them, tying the game at 11 with 15:02 to play. The Wolverines took the lead and kept it for nearly seven minutes, only meeting at a tie once with UTPA.

For the last six minutes of the first half the score was kept tight with a spread of just a few points. UTPA took the lead at half by two points, 35-33. Both teams shot an even 50 percent from the field during the first half.

The Lady Broncs kept the lead the entire second half while Utah Valley held on only trailing by a handful of points. With just under 10 minutes to play, UTPA had managed to get a nine-point lead on the Wolverines and took that lead to as much as 12 during the second half.

Utah Valley shot only 28.6 percent from the field in the second half while UTPA shot 37.5 percent.

The Wolverines will now head out on the road for the rest of this month for four more conference games against UTPA, South Dakota, North Dakota and Houston Baptist. They will return to home court for their final home regular season game against NJIT on March 4 and then will host the GWC Tournament March 10-13.