Utah Valley moves back into first place in the WAC

Isaac Davis scored 14 points and Tyler Hendricks added 12 to lead Utah Valley to a 65-46 win over Cal Baptist on Thursday night at the UCCU Center, extending the Wolverines’ home win streak to 25 …

OREM, Utah (ABC4 Sports) – Isaac Davis scored 14 points and Tyler Hendricks added 12 to lead Utah Valley to a 65-46 win over Cal Baptist on Thursday night at the UCCU Center, extending the Wolverines’ home win streak to 25 games.

Utah Valley improves to 19-7 overall and moves into sole possession of first place in the Western Athletic Conference with a 9-4 league record. Utah Tech and California Baptist sit a half game back at 9-5. The Wolverines’ 25 straight home wins mark the fourth-longest active home win streak in the nation.

“Big-time win tonight for us,” said Utah Valley head coach Todd Phillips. “Really proud of the guys. Defensively, I thought it was one of our best defensive performances of the year. We sat down and guarded and were really disciplined.”

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Utah Valley jumped out to an early 8-2 lead and held a 16-7 advantage midway through the first half. The Lancers responded with a 9-2 run to trim the deficit to two at 18-16 with 7:18 remaining, but the Wolverines closed the half on a 9-4 run to take a 29-22 lead into the break.

Trevan Leonhardt opened the second half with a three-pointer to push the lead to 32-22 and ignite a decisive 20-5 run over the next 9:50, giving UVU a commanding 49-27 advantage with 10:49 remaining. Utah Valley extended the lead to as many as 23 points before closing out the 19-point victory.

“We talked a lot about defense,” said Leonhardt. “When we win, we’re good defensively. When we don’t win, we’re not very good defensively. Toughness and rebounding, that’s our identity.”

Davis finished with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting, adding four rebounds, three steals and a block. Hendricks went 4-of-9 from the field and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line while pulling down seven rebounds with three assists, three steals and two blocks.

Isaac Hawkins added 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench, while Leonhardt filled the stat sheet with nine points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Phillips praised Leonhardt’s consistency and impact on both ends of the floor.

“Trevin does everything right,” Phillips said. “He’ll have eight assists, five or six rebounds, big rebounds for us. He has great length and a great feel for the game. He’s been super consistent all year long.”

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Utah Valley shot 43.1% (25-of-58) from the field and held CBU to just 29.3% (17-of-58) shooting. The Wolverines also limited the Lancers to just nine free-throw attempts — a key emphasis entering the game.

“One of the big things with them is you can’t foul them,” Phillips said. “They shoot it really well from the line, so holding them to nine attempts was huge for us.”

The Wolverines controlled the paint, outscoring CBU 36-22 and outrebounding the Lancers 40-36.

After scoring 47 points in CBU’s overtime win over Utah Valley in Riverside on Jan. 24, Dominick Daniels Jr. was held to 12 points in Thursday’s rematch.

“Scout and the game plan were big,” Leonhardt said. “He’s a great player, so we knew what we were doing coming in, and the guys executed.”

Utah Valley now heads to Texas for a road matchup at UT Arlington on Saturday at College Park Center at 1:00 p.m. MT.

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Source: Utah News