If you were as busy as the Cougars and Wolverines were this weekend, chances are you didn’t get to watch all of the games. Here’s a quick recap of how it all went down.
UVU men’s basketball beats Grand Canyon after slow start
UVU men’s basketball clawed itself out of a 12-point deficit to beat Grand Canyon 68–56 Saturday afternoon.
“There’s no doubt that this was a whacked-out game, but we’ll take it every single day if we can have it,” said UVU head coach Mark Pope in a press release. “GCU is a really good team, they were picked to finish first in the league. This was a great win for us because we protected home and we’re 12-1 (at home) now. I’m proud of our guys because they won when nothing was going right and that’s the sign of a good team.”
UVU senior Akolda Manyang led the Wolverines with 14 points, which he scored only in the second half, and added six rebounds. Guards Conner Toolson contributed 12 points and Kenneth Ogbe added 10 points.
UVU now begins a three-game road trip. First, the Wolverines travel to Washington to take on Seattle U on Saturday, Feb. 3.
The Wolverines move to 16-6 on the season and 5-1 in the Western Athletic Conference.
And THAT is how you end a game🔥🙌🏽😉 #GoUVU pic.twitter.com/XrVDjPG1pR
— UVU Men’s Basketball (@UVUmbb) January 28, 2018
UVU women’s basketball loses on the road
UVU sophomore forward Jordan Holland recorded her first career double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, but her effort wasn’t enough to keep the Wolverines from losing 81-61 to Grand Canyon on Saturday.
GCU got an early lead and was up more than double UVU’s score in the second quarter. GCU started the second quarter on a 15-2 run that gave GCU a 31-13 lead. The Wolverines weren’t able to come back from that deficit.
Mariah Seals led the Wolverines in scoring with 21 points.
UVU returns home for three conference games. The first game is on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 3 p.m. against Seattle U.
BYU men’s basketball gets revenge on Pacific
After losing to Pacific earlier this season, BYU basketball stumbled through the first half then returned with an offensive vengeance in the second half to secure a 80-65 win over Pacific Saturday night in the Marriott Center.
“It was a battle all the way to the end,” said BYU coach Dave Rose. “It’s going to look like a 15-point game on the ticker, but that was a really competitive basketball game.”
BYU sophomore Yoeli Childs and junior Elijah Bryant, who was limited to 12 points in the first half, came alive in the second half. Childs scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half while Bryant score 16 of his 28 points in the second half. As a team, the Cougars scored 50 points in the second half, including an impressive 88.9 percent free-throw shooting showing.
BYU (18–5, 7–3 WCC) next travels to Loyola Marymount on Thursday, Feb. 1 at 9 p.m. MST. Read a game recap of BYU vs. Pacific game here.
BYU women’s basketball falls to Pacific
BYU women’s basketball fell short 83-76 against the Pacific on Saturday afternoon.
“Today we lost because of mental mistakes,” said BYU head coach Jeff Judkins in a press release. “We turned the ball over and they scored baskets on the other end. We gave up layups and didn’t boxout at crucial times. We can’t win on the road when we make those kind of mistakes. We’ll learn from this game and get ready for two tough games at home next week.”
BYU senior Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee attempted to carry BYU’s offense on her shoulders, scoring 26 points in the contest. Sophomore guard Brenna Chase contributed 18 points.
The Cougars fall to 12-9 on the season and 7-3 in the West Coast Conference.
BYU returns home for two games: Thursday against Loyola Marymount and Saturday against Gonzaga.
No. 5 BYU men’s volleyball falls to No. 6 UC Irvine
After sweeping Barton last weekend, No. 5 BYU men’s volleyball struggled against No. 6 UC Irvine, dropping two matches over the weekend. On Friday night, the Cougars lost 1–3 (25-22, 25-23, 20-25, 25-21). Then the Cougars rallied on Saturday to extend the game, but still fell short losing 2–3 (25-16, 24-26, 25-18, 21-25, 15-13).
Despite losing, BYU had a strong offensive presence in Friday night’s game with four players earning double-digit kills. BYU freshman outside hitter Gabi Garcia Fernandez led the Cougars with 17 kills in the match. Senior Brenden Sander contributed 13 kills while sophomore Storm Fa’agata-Tufuga and senior Price Jarman contributed 10 kills apiece. Senior setter Leo Durkins had 47 assists and eight digs in the match.
“I thought we competed well for the most part tonight against a great opponent,” said BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead following Friday night’s game. “We have some things defensively that we’ll need to shore up tomorrow if we want to split the series.”
Then, after getting a slow start in the first set, the Cougars pushed the Anteaters to five sets on Saturday night. Three players finished the game with double-digit kills: Sander with 16 kills, Fernandez with 13 kills and Fa’agata-Tufuga with 10 kills.
“It took too long for us to get going tonight and UC Irvine capitalized,” Olmstead said in a press release. “I liked our fight in the fifth set, and I’m proud of the guys for that.”
BYU returns home on Friday and Saturday night to UC Santa Barbara.