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OREM — Utah Valley pushed its way into a winning record Saturday in a highly-anticipated contest.
It was Southern Utah's first time seeing one of their star players, Drake Allen, from last year since he transferred to Utah Valley in the offseason. Allen put up 16 points and nine assists against his former team to help the Wolverines to an 80-62 victory.
The rest of the excitement came from the fact that it was a rematch of the Western Athletic Conference semifinal game last year. The pressure was on Utah Valley to redeem themselves after losing on a buzzer-beating 4-point play in that game.
The win gives Utah Valley an 8-7 overall record and makes them 3-1 in WAC play, while SUU falls to 5-10 overall and 0-4 in the WAC.
Once Utah Valley scored the first points of the game, ESPN projected the Wolverines with a 75.2% win probability. But when Southern Utah led at the half, it looked like they might defy the odds.
The Thunderbirds had two players go 5-of-9 from the field, with Parsa Fallah scoring 10 points and Zion Young leading all scorers with 14.
Brock Felder may have been the one to thank for snatching the lead, though, after drawing an offensive foul and sinking both free throw opportunities, which proved to be his only 2 points of the game. Felder came right back on the defensive end and blocked Jaden McClanahan to give his team another chance to score.
One more shot by Young put Southern Utah up 38-35 at the break.
Felder had more rebounds than anyone else on the floor with seven to set a new career high in just under seven minutes on the court.
The two teams were nearly dead even with their shooting, and both shot just over 40% from the field, 30% from 3-point range and 80% from the free-throw line.
But the second half is where the Wolverines took over. Utah Valley held Southern Utah to just 24 points in the half while putting up 45 of their own, even controlling a five-minute stint where Southern Utah went scoreless.
Allen, who was stifled to 4 points in the first half, found his groove and went 4-of-5 from the field and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to give him 12 game-leading second-half points.
Redshirt freshman Tanner Toolson also stepped up for Utah Valley with seven rebounds and 14 points. Still, he credited the win to the defense.
"Our defense tonight was what kept us in the game," Toolson said. "I think we're trying to shift our identity to more of a defensive-minded team."
Wolverine head coach Todd Phillips said he was pleased with his team's defensive presence in a rivalry win.
"Emphasize defense, then we scored 80 points," Phillips said. "I thought our guys were aggressive on the defensive end. We rebounded the ball well and made them take some tough shots, and that leads to offense."
At the game's close, Southern Utah made just 36.5% of its shots from the field, while the team's free throw percentage fell to 61.1%. Utah Valley, on the other hand, kept steady and came away with a 45.9% field goal percentage.
Southern Utah's Young and Utah Valley's Caleb Stone-Carrawell tied as the leading scorers with 17 points each.
The two teams will meet again on Feb. 17 in Cedar City when Utah Valley will look to even the all-time series at seven games apiece. Until then, the Wolverines have sent the Thunderbirds flying back south for the winter.
