Utah Valley Closes Regular Season In Impressive Fashion Against Lumberjacks

Mar 3, 2023, 8:36 PM | Updated: Mar 4, 2023, 9:09 pm

Digital Producer

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Valley never trailed as Le’Tre Darthard’s 26 points led the Wolverines to an impressive win, trouncing Stephen F. Austin 113-69.

Utah Valley (23-7, 14-3) hosted the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (19-11, 11-6) in the Western Athletic Conference regular-season finale for each program. This game was played at the UCCU Center in Orem, Utah.

Trey Woodbury finishes with
1⃣1⃣ points
1⃣1⃣ rebounds
1⃣1⃣ assists@UVUmbb closes the regular season with a 44-point win over Stephen F. Austin. https://t.co/YxbCkixVeb

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) March 4, 2023

UVU clinched the top spot in the WAC postseason tournament with a dominant victory over UT-Arlington earlier this week.

The Lumberjacks pushed Sam Houston to overtime before falling 64-59 earlier this week.

Trey Woodbury finished with his first career triple-double for UVU. He had 11 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Blaze Nield was perfect from the floor, scoring 16 points on 4-of-4 field goals, 1-of-1 from three and 7-of-7 from the charity stripe.

Nigel Hawkins finished with 20 points for SFA in the loss.

First Half

Justin Harmon and Aziz Bandaogo opened the game with a pair of buckets at the rim and UVU was off and running.

#55 Aziz Bandaogo with another dunk for the Wolverines!!#GoUVU #UVU #ProtectTheDen #NCAA #WAC #D1 #basketball #gametime #dunk pic.twitter.com/HMWsgWPwed

— UVU Men’s Basketball (@UVUmbb) March 4, 2023

The Wolverines led 13-2 before the Lumberjacks hit their second field goal of the night.

An 8-0 UVU run midway through the half opened up their largest lead of the night, 26-12 with 10:07 left. After a free throw from Latrell Jossell for SFA, Utah Valley increased the run to 12-1 with baskets from Darthard and Tim Ceaser.

Utah Valley held a 55-36 halftime lead.

Second Half

The second half was purely academic with UVU continuing their dismantling of the Lumberjacks offense. Stephen F. Austin shot 41.9 percent in the first half and it didn’t improve in the final 20 minutes.

The Lumberjacks were held to 37.5 percent second-half shooting.

Utah Valley cruised to a 113-69 win to close the regular season.

Up Next

Utah Valley travels to Las Vegas as the top seed in the WAC postseason tournament. Played at The Orleans Arena, the men’s tournament will be played Tuesday, March 7- Saturday, March 11.