Utah Valley is as close as ever to get a place in the NCAA tournament.
The Wolverines beat Seattle 68-55 in the semi-finals of the Men’s Men’s Basketball WAC on Friday and are a victory for the first appearance of the program in the NCAA.
UVU, which has been in WAC since 2013, has finally crossed the semi-final of the WAC tournament behind an 18-point Toolson effort, six reimbursements and three flights.
“Tonight, I think we just played as a team,” Toolson said in a team press release. “We went out with the right mentality and played for each other, and it was the key to our success all the season.”
The Wolverines have never done the WAC tournament championship so far-they were 0-6 in the semi-finals of the WAC tournament at night.
This brand from 0 to 6 included four losses per five points or less, a thriller at four o’clock in 2017 when UVU made a short point against CSU Bakersfield and 2023, when the Wolverines led the south of Utah by 23 at a given time and were launched 88-85 late before the T-Birds reached a 3, were hung and launched the victory.
This time, however, UVU was not about to drop it to the last moments.
The seeded n ° 1 Wolverines (25-7), which won the WAC regular season championship by two games, held a 10-point lead to the half-time on the head of N ° 5 Seattle and moved away late after the Redhawks fired in six with just over 10 minutes to play.
Toolson, who transferred from Byu, pulled 7 out of 10 from the land to lead UVU overnight, he pulled 48.9% of the soil. The Carter Welling departure center added 17 points and eight rebounds, while the Wolverines have ahead of Seattle 17-4 in bench points.
UVU’s defense had a big night, holding Seattle at 46.4% shooting while the Wolverines held a rebound advantage of 38-26.
“Our defense was enormous,” said UVU head coach Todd Phillips. “The points of the painting (a UVU 34-30 edge), obviously, were great for us, but simply being on the glass and keeping them out of the glass – it’s such a good rebound team. We preach blocks every day, and I am really proud of the guys who have intensified tonight. “”
During the championship match on Saturday, UVU will face the winner of the second match of the semi-final on Friday between the Grand Canyon n ° 2 and the n ° 3 Cal Baptist.
The championship will be played at 9:40 p.m. on Saturday in Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The game will be a television on ESPN2.
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