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Utah Valley's Trey Woodbury takes a jumper during a Western Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal game against Tarleton at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

Courtesy UVU Marketing

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Utah Valley's Trey Woodbury goes to the basket during a Western Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal game against Tarleton at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

Courtesy UVU Marketing

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Utah Valley's Justin Harmon takes a jump shot during a Western Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal game against Tarleton at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

Courtesy UVU Marketing

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Step One complete.

The Utah Valley men’s basketball team, which won the Western Athletic Conference regular season title, opened the league’s tournament with a 72-58 victory against No. 7 seed Tarleton at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The victory also avenged a 19-point road loss to the Texans on Feb. 23, the Wolverines only defeat in their past ten games.

Utah Valley (25-7) has never won the WAC Tournament title in eight appearances and has two more steps to take to do just that, starting with a semifinal meeting with the Utah Tech-Southern Utah winner on Friday.

The 1-2 scoring punch of Justin Harmon (23 points) and Trey Woodbury (21) got a boost from WAC Defensive Player of the Year Aziz Bandaogo in the second half in putting away Tarleton. Bandaogo, who had just one point at halftime, finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. His impact on both ends of the floor helped UVU stretch its lead and advance in the tournament.

“Aziz is the ultimate competitor,” Wolverines coach Mark Madsen said. “He changes the game, really on both sides of the ball. He’s defensive player of the year for a reason. He loves playing defense and his teammates love playing with him.”

Harmon’s 23 points was a season high. UVU overcame 20 turnovers with a defensive effort that held the Texans nearly nine minutes without a field goal in the second half.

Woodbury was on fire in the first half, connecting on 4 of 6 from the field and 3 of 4 from the 3-point line for 13 points. He made a pair of triples and a Le’Tre Darthard layup gave Utah Valley a 10-6 lead at the 14:18 mark. A 3-point play from Blaze Nield pushed the Wolverines advantage to five, 13-8, with 11:15 to go.

UVU worked the boards with six offensive rebounds and that paid off with a second-chance 3-pointer from Harmon for a 19-16 advantage with 9:08 to go.

Another Darthard drive and two Woodbury free throws gave the Wolverines their biggest lead of the first half at 25-15 with 4:53 remaining. Woodbury scored on a drive and the next time down the floor drained his third 3-pointer of the half and UVU took a 34-27 lead at the break.

Nield and Harmon added eight points each for the Wolverines, which shot 52% (13 of 25) from the field and finished the half making six straight field goals.

Turnovers started to become a problem for UVU in the second half and Tarleton took advantage, closing to one point, 41-40, with just under 14 minutes left to play. Harmon led a Wolverines charge with five points, including a 3-point play, for a 46-40 advantage at the 12:18 mark.

Bandaogo took over from there on both ends. He scored his first basket of the game on a lob with 8:43 to play to give UVU a 52-43 lead. Later Bandaogo blocked three straight Texans shots and ended up with a dunk on the offensive end. He converted another dunk for a 63-50 Wolverines lead with 5:20 to play. Darthard made a big 3-pointer and it was 66-50, UVU with under two minutes to play.

Tarleton (17-15) was led by Jakorie Smith with 12 points and Shamir Bogues with 11.

The Wolverines are the No. 2 seed in the tournament based on the league’s new seeding procedure. Sam Houston, which finished behind UVU in the WAC standings, earned the No. 1 seed.

Utah Valley has reached the semifinal round of the WAC Tournament five times. The Wolverines must win the championship game to earn the league’s automatic bid and reach its first-ever NCAA Tournament.

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