GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Utah Valley pulled away late to post a 72-64 victory over North Dakota in the Great West Conference opener for both schools Saturday at the UCCU Center. UND (8-10, 0-1 GWC) led 63-62 after sophomore
Aaron Anderson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key with just under four minutes to play, but the Wolverines (11-10, 1-0 GWC) outscored the visitors 11-2 the rest of the way to net the win.
Junior Alfonzo Hubbard scored a career-high 17 points off the bench to pace the home team as four Wolverines reached double figures. Sophomore
Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.) led UND with 15 points, while classmates
Brandon Brekke (East Grand Forks, Minn.) and
Josh Schuler (Urbana, Ohio) joined him in double figures.
Brekke registered his third double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Schuler scored 12 off the UND bench.
“The score is not indicative of how close this one was,” UND head coach
Brian Jones said. “Our guys battled throughout, but (UVU) got a few timely putbacks and we had a couple of turnovers late that cost us this one. That is fatigue and we have to grind through those situations and find a way to get a road win.”
After UVU built a 65-62 advantage on a layup from Holton Hunsaker, UND had one more good look from 3-point territory, but Schuler's attempt from the top of the key with a minute left rattled in and out and UVU would make 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch to clinch the victory.
Turnovers also were costly for UND as the visitors committed 18 miscues, while only forcing the home team into 14. Senior Isaih Williams, the preseason GWC Player of the Year, was held to 12 points by the UND defense and only four after the break. Senior Keith Thompson had 11 for UVU to go with eight rebounds, while Hunsaker had 14 of his 16 in the final 20 minutes.
UVU led 34-33 at the break thanks to a 3-pointer by Hubbard with 20 ticks to play. The home team led by as many as seven points in the first half and nine points in the second half only to see UND erase those deficits.
Huff scored 10 of UND's first 12 points and had his squad out to an 8-3 advantage thanks to a pair of 3-pointers and a nice feed to Brekke down low for an easy basket.
Sophomore
Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) had all nine of his points after intermission to stage a late rally that saw Anderson cap a 12-2 run and give the team its first lead of the second half with his first field goal of the game. Anderson would make the only other field goal in the final four minutes on a driving layup after UVU had put the game out of reach with its solid free-throw shooting.
The Wolverines finished 21-for-28 for the game, including a 14-for-16 effort in the second half. UND went just 9-for-16 from the stripe.
UND returns home to the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center for a pair of GWC games next week starting with a tilt against NJIT on Thursday at 7 p.m. Chicago State visits Grand Forks for a 2 p.m. tipoff on Saturday.
– UND –
