Dec. 18, 2012

UVU Game Notes

OREM, Utah -- The Utah Valley University women's basketball team will close out its pre-Christmas schedule by hosting Carroll College Wednesday at 3 p.m. and playing at No. 25 University of Colorado at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Live stats, audio and video for Wednesday's contest will be available by visiting WolverineGreen.com. The same can be found for Saturday's game at CUBuffs.com.

UVU is 3-9 overall this season and is coming off of a 62-44 road victory at Northern Arizona last Saturday. In that game 18th year head coach Cathy Nixon recorded her 300th-career victory. The Wolverines are also 2-2 in their last four games, all of which that were against teams from the Big Sky Conference.

In Saturday's 18-point win at NAU, the Wolverines converted six first half 3-pointers as they opened a 36-23 lead over the Lumberjacks at the break. UVU quickly added to its lead by scoring the first six points of the second period to jump out to a 19-point lead. The Wolverines held on to its lead from there as it cruised to their first road victory of the year.

Senior Sammie Jensen led UVU with 13 points and eight boards in the game while junior Whitney Jenkins added 10. It was a true team effort for the Wolverines as nine players scored and 10 recorded a rebound.

Jensen leads the Wolverines and the Great West Conference in scoring and rebounding with a double-double average of 18.0 ppg and 11.9 rpg. Her 11.9 rebounds per game are good enough for ninth in the nation and she is also ranked second nationally in double-doubles with eight. Fellow senior Kaycee Mansfield is second on the team in both scoring and rebounding with averages of 8.8 ppg and 6.4 rpg. Jenkins is third in scoring with an average of 8.0 points per game.

About Carroll
Carroll College, an NAIA Division I member from Helena, Mont., is 6-4 this year and were recently ranked in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Top 25 Poll but have since dropped out. The Fighting Saints are playing their third straight NCAA Division I opponent on Wednesday. CC fell 76-64 at Boise State on Dec. 9 and 70-38 at Idaho State on Dec. 14.

The Fighting Saints have a connection with Weber State as their head coach, Rachelle Sayers, was the former coach at WSU and she brought three former Wildcat players in Joey O'Neill, Megan Patterson and Jordan Pfau with her to Carroll.

Torrie Cahill leads CC in scoring and rebounding with averages of 14.6 ppg and 6.1 rpg. Patterson is next in scoring with 12.4 points per contest.

Saturday's game will be the first all-time meeting between the Wolverines and Fighting Saints. It will also be an exhibition contest for Carroll but a regular season game for UVU. The Wolverines are 22-4 all-time against non D-I opponents.

About Colorado
The Buffaloes recently broke into the AP Top 25 Poll after defeating No. 8 Louisville, 70-66, in their last game to begin the season with an unblemished 9-0 record. It is the first time that CU has been ranked since 2008. Colorado was picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12 Preseason Poll after going 6-12 last year and will begin its second season of Pac-12 Conference play on Jan. 4 versus No. 1 Stanford.

Arielle Roberson leads the Buffs with an average of 16.1 points per game. Chucky Jeffery is next with 12.4 ppg and tops on the team in rebounding with 8.1 rpg. Jeffery was also recently named the espnW National Player of the Week and Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week after she averaged 18 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists in wins over Denver and Louisville last week.

Saturday will mark the first-ever meeting between UVU and CU. The Wolverines are 1-5 all-time against teams from the Pac-12 Conference. UVU defeated USC 66-64 in Hawaii on Dec. 5, 2008.

Up Next for the Wolverines
The Wolverines will take a week off for the Christmas holiday but will return to the court next Saturday, Dec. 29, at Southern Utah.