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Utah Valley's Jackson Holcombe drives the lane for two of his game-high 27 points during the Wolverine's 79-78 loss to George Washington. March 19, 2026

Courtesy UVU Photo

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Utah Valley fans created a great atmosphere for their team's first round NIT game versus George Washington. March 19, 2026

Courtesy UVU Photo

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Utah Valley's Isaac Davis rises above the defense to throw down a dunk during his team's 79-78 loss to George Washington. March 18, 2026

Courtesy UVU Photo

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All good things must come to an end, and that was certainly the case during Utah Valley’s otherwise remarkable men’s basketball season courtesy of a 79-78 loss to George Washington in the first round of the NIT Tournament on Wednesday.

Despite a valiant comeback bid during the second half, the Wolverines weren’t able to completely dig out of the hole created in taking a 45-29 deficit into the half. The loss also snapped Utah Valley’s 27-game winning streak at the UCCU Center, a fact the Revolutionary players audibly celebrated as they left the court triumphant in victory.

Leading the way for the Wolverines was again Jackson Holcombe, who scored a game-high 27 points and dished out seven assists in what could very well prove his final game played at the UCCU Center. Due to his breakthrough season, the sophomore from Timpanogos High School could reel in some big-time NIL money from another program via entering the transfer portal.

But as for Wednesday night, Holcombe’s entire focus was on his current team and what they’ve accomplished.

“That that’s something that we do. We compete until the last buzzer sounds,” Holcombe said. “Unfortunately we got off to a slow start, but in that second half we were just like, ‘This is what we do. We compete and we never say die, no matter what.’ And I think you saw that.”

Sure enough Utah Valley started chipping away until finally taking the lead at 67-66 with just over five minutes remaining. The go-ahead score was provided by Isaac Davis, who managed to corral the rebound and putback on his own missed free throw as the Wolverine crowd went wild and forced the Revolutionaries into a timeout.

“That’s a mentality of our team. That’s the culture of our program is you had guys who maybe haven’t played a lot all year come in and make big plays because we don’t give up,” Holcombe said. “We don’t wave the white flag. We are going to go at you until that last buzzer sounds.”

As for Davis, Wednesday’s game provided a welcome respite from the negative focus he received following Utah Valley’s loss to Cal Baptist in the WAC Championship game. The game ended when Davis missed on an alley-oop dunk attempt which received a lot of attention nationally and on social media, which isn’t always an easy thing to endure.

“All the hate mail he got and it’s just what these kids have to deal with it these days,” said Utah Valley coach Todd Phillips. “I think it took him a little while (to get going), but he’s such a good defender, right? He does such a great job of keeping guys in front of him. Big guys can’t move him or bring him very much and, so we needed that.”

For the night Davis eight points and pulled down seven rebounds while doing his best work, as mentioned by Phillips, on the defensive end.

As mentioned, it took Utah Valley a while to get in gear with Phillips admitting to some hangover from the loss to Cal Baptist in the WAC Championship.

“There’s a million things that go on,”  he said. ” … That was a big loss we had at the WAC tournament … I think you have a little bit of a hangover. But I think everybody has that hangover. Everybody lost that’s playing in this tournament. So they all have that hangover and try to get going and I think we were a little slow-footed and (George Washington) got going.”

Leading the way for George Washington was Rafael Castro, who scored a team-high 22 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Overall George Washington was very complimentary toward UVU, and particularly its head coach Chris Caputo.

“I have a lot of respect for them,” Caputo said. ” … I have played some NIT games throughout the years and can’t remember an NIT game environment quite as good as this one tonight. So that’s credit to Utah Valley, their fans, and how good their team is and how good of a job Todd does. And so, to come out of here and break their winning streak is quite impressive for our group.”

With the loss Utah Valley’s season ends with the team having gone 25-9 overall while winning the WAC regular season title, all of which Phillips and his players can go away proud of.

“I’m just so proud of this team,” Phillips concluded.