UVU Roundup: Men’s basketball survives 2OT with Utah Tech
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- Utah Valley’s Isaac Davis, right, makes a move against Utah Tech in a Western Athletic Conference men’s basketball game at St. George on Saturday, March 7, 2026.
ST. GEORGE — Sherman Weatherspoon IV scored a career-high 27 points, while Jackson Holcombe added 23 and Trevan Leonhardt chipped in 21 to lead Utah Valley to a 104-101 double overtime road win at Utah Tech on Saturday night at Burns Arena, clinching the outright Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship.
Utah Valley improves to 24-7 overall and finishes alone atop the WAC standings with a 14-4 mark. The Wolverines have won six straight heading into next week’s Air Force Reserve WAC Tournament at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Utah Valley will enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed and has a bye directly into Friday night’s semifinal round.
The championship marks the second straight outright WAC regular-season title for Utah Valley and the first time in program history the Wolverines have won back-to-back conference championships.
“Just so proud of our guys,” said Utah Valley head coach Todd Phillips. “They hung in there, hung in there, hung in there and got the win tonight. It felt like four games out there. It was a back-and-forth title fight between two really good teams and we just kept throwing haymakers at each other.”
In the second extra period, Tyler Medaris, who had checked in after Hayden Welling fouled out, sparked Utah Valley with a layup to start a 6-0 run that gave the Wolverines a 99-92 lead with 2:50 to play.
“Tyler Medaris was huge,” Phillips said. “He’s a worker and brings it every day in practice. When we called his name tonight late in the game, he stepped up and was big for us.”
Utah Tech closed to within one point in the final seconds, but Weaver knocked down two free throws with two seconds left to seal the 104-101 victory as the Trailblazers missed a potential tying three at the buzzer.
Utah Valley extended its lead to 61-46 midway through the second half when Holcombe scored on back-to-back possessions to spark a 16-4 run. The surge was capped by free throws from Isaac Hawkins and back-to-back threes from Weatherspoon and Tyler Weaver.
Utah Tech chipped away late, cutting the deficit to four points in the final minute before tying the game at 81-81 on a three-point play by former Wolverine Ethan Potter with eight seconds remaining. Leonhardt’s three-point attempt at the buzzer came up short, sending the game to overtime.
Utah Tech opened overtime on a 4-0 run before Utah Valley answered with threes from Weaver and Leonhardt to tie the game at 87-87 with three minutes remaining. Leonhardt later drilled another three to give the Wolverines a 90-87 lead, but the Trailblazers answered with free throws to tie the game again at 92-92 and force a second overtime.
Weatherspoon, whose previous career high was 13 points, finished with 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including a career-best 6-of-7 from three-point range.
“Sherm was big-time tonight,” Phillips said. “He really shoots it well in practice and the rim got big for him tonight. We needed every one of those threes.”
Holcombe scored 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting and went 7-of-10 from the free throw line. He narrowly missed a double-double with nine rebounds and added seven assists and two steals.
Leonhardt finished with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting and hit a career-high five three-pointers. He also dished out nine assists with three rebounds, two steals, and a block. Weaver added a career-high 10 points off the bench, while Hawkins chipped in nine.
Women’s basketball gets Senior Day win
Utah Valley defeated Utah Tech, 71-59, on Saturday in the Old Hammer Rivalry.
Senior Kylee Mabry capped her home career with 17 points, a career-high eight boards, and tied a career high with five assists to lead UVU (16-13, 9-9) past the Trailblazers (9-19, 4-14). Utah Tech’s Kaylee Borden led all scorers with 24 points, including six made 3-pointers. All seven UVU seniors scored in the game, with Amanda Barcello scoring 12 points and Kaylee Headrick finishing with 11 to give the Wolverines three players in double figures. Halle Nelson finished with seven points, eight rebounds, and six assists.
“What a great way to end Senior Day with a win over an in-state rival,” UVU head coach Dan Nielson said. “I thought we started slow today, but played really well in the second half, especially defensively. I’m just grateful to our seniors for all their hard work, loyalty, and for raising the standards for our program. Now we need to keep this momentum going for next week in Vegas.”
The half ended with Borden hitting a pair of 3-pointers for the Trailblazers before Nelson’s layup tied the game at 30-30. Utah Valley used a 10-0 run in the third quarter to build a nine-point lead, with Blackham knocking down a pair of triples during the run to put UVU in front 44-35 with under five minutes left in the third. UVU scored seven second-chance points in the quarter to help take a 50-42 lead into the fourth. The Wolverines finished the fourth quarter going 9-for-9 from the foul line to help close out the game. UVU finished 19-for-25 at the line. Utah Tech cut the lead to four at 61-57 with 4:40 left after a 3-pointer from Paige Cofer. Utah Valley quickly responded with a jump shot by Saige Gibb. She then knocked down a 3-pointer following a made triple by Mabry to extend the lead back to 12 at 69-57 and push the game out of reach.
As the No. 4 seed, Utah Valley is set to play in next week’s Air Force Reserve WAC Tournament in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena, a Thursday quarterfinal matchup with No. 5 seed Tarleton State.
Baseball splits doubleheader with Northern Colorado
UVU (7-7) fell 14-3 in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday but responded with a 12-1 run-rule victory over UNC (2-16) in the nightcap.
Quinn Holt tossed five innings of one-hit ball with nine strikeouts in the second game on Saturday. Five Wolverine hitters had two or more RBIs in the second game.
Utah Valley fell behind early and could not recover in the front end of the doubleheader. Jayden Smith finished with three hits, starting with an RBI double in the second inning to score Mason Strong, who led off with a walk. The Wolverines looked for a big inning in the third, starting with a DJ Massey walk and an infield single by Luke Iverson to put two runners on base. They loaded the bases after Kaden Carpenter worked a walk. UVU pushed a run across on a wild pitch before Chipper Beck’s groundout made it 10-3.
Quinn Holt surrendered a run in the first inning while allowing his only hit of the game on a first-inning single from Easton Bryant. The Wolverines went on to score 12 unanswered runs. Leading 4-1, rhe Wolverines extended the lead in the fourth on a two-run single by Luke Iverson. Following a single by Hamlin, Carpenter hit a home run that snuck over the left-field wall for a three-run shot to put UVU in front 9-1. It was Carpenter’s fourth homer of the season and he’s now tied with Katschke for the team lead.
Iverson finished 2-for-3 in the second game with two RBIs as five different Wolverines had two or more RBIs in the game.
Softball splits doubleheader with Pacific
STOCKTON, Calif. — Lily Riley tossed 6 1/3 shutout innings and Angelique Mann and Mya Higareda combined for five RBIs to lead Utah Valley to a 7-0 win over the Pacific Tigers in a Saturday doubleheader split at Bill Simoni Field.
The Wolverines dropped the second half of the twin bill by a score of 5-2, with UVU’s seventh-inning rally falling short after bringing the tying run to the plate.
Riley continued her dominant form of late to keep the Tigers off the board. Pacific got both of its hits in game one in the fourth inning, with Riley allowing just two other baserunners on an error and a walk.
Pacific flipped the script in Game 2, holding the Wolverines to just one run on one hit through the first six innings.
