LAS VEGAS — The Utah Valley men’s basketball team saw its NCAA Tournament chances go up in smoke on Friday at Orleans Arena.

The Wolverines, the No. 2 seed in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, led No. 3 seed Southern Utah 59-36 with 15:42 to play and still held an 81-71 advantage with 4:40 remaining in their semifinal matchup.

But everything that could go wrong for UVU did go wrong, and everything that could go right for the Thunderbirds went right.

Le’Tre Darthard had hit a pair of free throws to give UVU a three-point lead, 88-85, with 10 seconds to play. SUU’s Tevian Jones pulled up and knocked down a three while being fouled to tie the game with four seconds left. Jones then made the free throw to give the T-Birds the 89-88 lead. Justin Harmon’s layup at the buzzer just rolled off the rim that would have given UVU the win.

“I wish I had done a better job as a coach,” Wolverines head man Mark Madsen said. “In retrospect, I used up my timeouts too soon. So I wasn’t able to call time out, calm some situations down and so this game is on me. This game is on no one else other than me as the head coach. They (SUU) got into us. They created turnovers and did what they were supposed to do. They got deflections and they disrupted us. That’s what happened.”

Trey Woodbury scored a season-high 29 points and became the ninth player in Utah Valley history to reach the 1,000-point mark.

Tim Fuller matched a season high with 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and three steals. Justin Harmon scored 13 points with six rebounds and five assists. Darthard and Aziz Bandaogo were also in double figures with 12 points apiece.

Jones led SUU (22-11) with 20 points and Harrison Butler added 19 as the Thunderbirds scored 56 points in the second half.

Utah Valley (25-8) shot an impressive 55.4 percent from the field with a 42.9 percent (9-21) mark from long range. SUU shot 44.8 percent (30-67) from the floor with a 38. 1 percent (8-21) clip from three.

Utah Valley now awaits information on a postseason NIT bid. Stay tuned to GoUVU.com for more information.

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