1 / 5

Utah Valley's Dominick Nelson hangs on the rim after a dunk against UT Arlington in a Western Athletic Conference men's basketball game at the UCCU Center on Orem on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025.

Courtesy UVU Marketing

2 / 5

Utah Valley's Trevan Leonhart (10) drives to the hoop against UT Arlington in a Western Athletic Conference men's basketball game at the UCCU Center in Orem on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025.

Courtesy UVU Marketing

3 / 5

Utah Valley's Jackson Holcombe (2) looks to pass against UT Arlington in a Western Athletic Conference men's basketball game at the UCCU Center in Orem on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025.

Courtesy UVU Marketing

4 / 5

Utah Valley's Carter Welling (22) rises up for a dunk against UT Arlington in a Western Athletic Conference men's basketball game at the UCCU Center in Orem on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025.

Courtesy UVU Marketing

5 / 5

UVU observed a moment of silence on behalf of Jeffrey S. Tolk, husband of school president Astrid S. Tuminez, before a men's basketball game against UT Arlington on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. Tolk passed away Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. Pictured are the seats where the couple sat for Wolverine basketball games.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

If the Utah Valley men’s basketball team is starting up another 10-game winning streak, they did so in style on Wednesday night.

The Wolverines saw their 10-game run end at Grand Canyon on Saturday, but returned to the court with a bang against UT Arlington, running the Mavericks out of the gym in a 94-73 victory at the UCCU Center in Orem.

“It starts with defense for us, and we guarded tonight,” Utah Valley coach Todd Phillips said. “So I thought we did a really good job there. I’m really happy, but there’s so much we can get better at. There’s so much consistency our guys have got to get to as we grow. But I loved how they responded after the loss to GCU. If we could go on (another) 10-game win streak, that would be great.”

Utah Valley needed a last-second overtime basket by Jackson Holcombe to beat UTA in Texas on Jan. 16, but this meeting was all Wolverines, who led the entire way and shot 53% from the field.

“We’ve got a deep team,” said sophomore point guard Trevan Leonhart, who flirted with a triple-double and ended up with 10 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. “When you’re in the game, you’re just trying to make the best and biggest impact that you can. We got stops. We’re a really good team in transition and we get easy buckets. Playing good defense helps our offense. That’s a big part of it. We shared the ball and we took care of the ball. We move the ball, hit open shots and play good basketball.”

Dominick Nelson led Utah Valley with 19 points on 7 of 11 from the field and added five assists. Tanner Toolson scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half. The Wolverines totaled 25 assists on 34 made baskets and finished 14 of 30 (47%) from the 3-point line.

Kade Douglas led UT Arlington (11-12 overall, 4-5 WAC) with 20 points on 8 of 10 from the field and 4 of 6 from the 3-point line. UTA was playing without second-leading scorer Jaden Wells (12.8 points per game), who was ill.

Nelson got UVU off to a great start, scoring nine points in the first five minutes of the game. The Wolverines led 15-6 after Nelson hit a pair of free throws at the 15:17 mark. UVU pushed that advantage to ten points, 21-11, on a Noah Taitz 3-pointer with 12:18 to play in the half. UT Arlington found some offensive push and pulled to within three, 23-20, on an offensive rebound basket by Jaxon Ellingsworth with 9:24 on the clock. Back-to-back dunks from Carter Welling and Nelson kept the Wolverines in front.

A flurry of 3-pointers and eight points from Leonhart allowed UVU to seize the momentum at the end of the half. Leonhart nailed a step-back 3-pointer with five seconds remaining and the Wolverines took a 43-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Nelson led all scorers with 13 points in the first half.

Utah Valley kept up the pressure in the second half. Nelson scored five quick points, including a 3-pointer, and the Wolverines erupted on a 12-3 run, highlighted by two more triples from Kylin Green and Taitz. The UVU lead was 25, 60-35, with 12:44 remaining in the game. The margin reached 29 points, 89-60, on a 3-pointer by Green with 3:15 to play. The Wolverines scored 51 points in the second half of the rout.

“There’s some resilience, some leadership and growth of our team,” Phillips said. “We’ve got good players and they make plays. Sharing the ball, it gets contagious a little bit when the guards are doing those things. I’m just happy with what they’re doing.”

Utah Valley (16-7, 8-1), which is 9-0 at the UCCU Center this season, finishes off a two-game home stand on Saturday against Tarleton State at 2 p.m. MT.

UVU observed a moment of silence before the game on behalf of Jeffrey S. Tolk, husband of school president Astrid Tuminez. Tolk passed away on Wednesday.