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ABILENE, Texas — It didn't matter how many players got into foul trouble or what happened on the court Saturday for Utah Valley; they still found a way to win.
And they did it with another complete team performance.
Behind a 30-point output from the backcourt duo of Tanner Toolson and Drake Allen, with 20 more points coming from the bench, the Wolverines completed a season-ending road sweep with a 74-67 victory over Abilene Christian Saturday afternoon in front of 1,817 fans at the Moody Coliseum.
In completing their Texas two-step, Utah Valley (16-15, 11-9 WAC) finished with a winning regular season for the third straight year, and soured the Wildcats' senior day by ending their seven-game winning streak, just two days after the Wolverines snapped Tarleton State's 10-game win streak.
Utah Valley also likely locked up the No. 5 seed in the WAC Tournament with the victory, earning them a first-round date with No. 8 seed Cal Baptist Wednesday at 7 p.m. MST at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Ali Abdo Dibba led the Wildcats (15-16, 10-10 WAC) with 17 points, while Airion Simmons added a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Abilene Christian, as the likely No. 7 seed, will face No. 6 seed Stephen F. Austin Wednesday night.
The tournament brackets and final seeds will be released by the conference Sunday.
"We've been saying our team had to grow up, and now they are," Wolverines head coach Todd Phillips said. "The most important thing is you have to play with who you have."
It was who Utah Valley did not have on the floor, though, that changed the tide. Center Trevin Dorius fouled out with 9 points and six rebounds in just 14 minutes of action, while Ethan Potter and Allen both played 29 minutes each with four fouls.
That allowed reserve forward Caleb Stone-Carrawell to lead a second-unit surge with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Guard K'Mani Doughty added a crucial corner 3-pointer with less than a minute left in the first half, while Nate Tshimanga snagged three critical offensive rebounds, with one leading to a Stone-Carrawell 3-pointer.
"In these games where everything matters, even the little things can determine the outcome," Phillips said.
Another little thing was the 3-point line. After going 0-of-12 Thursday at Tarleton State, the Wolverines hit six of their first 10 attempts from the perimeter Saturday, including a 3-of-6 first-half performance from Tanner Toolson.
"We were just trying to take what the defense gave us in the first half," the redshirt freshman and BYU transfer said. "It was just like playing without thinking for me."
Behind the hot shooting, Utah Valley burst out to an early 11-point edge, but the Wildcats soon responded, turning what looked like a blowout into a battle, sending the Wolverines into halftime trailing 38-35.
Of the halftime message, Phillips said "we just challenged them to play the second half the same way we did in the first half."
It worked, as the Wolverines exploded out of the intermission on a 12-4 run to take a 47-42 lead before Abilene Christian turned the game into a tug of war again.
Then Allen took over.
After being held scoreless for nearly 35 minutes, Allen scored his first points off a layup with 5:56 left in the game, leading him to score the next 12 Wolverine points. He capped the burst with an NBA-length 3-pointer as the shot clock wound down to give Utah Valley a 70-63 lead with 2:27 remaining.
"We're a deep team, and Drake's run shows we can hit you from all different angles," Toolson said. "It's cool knowing someone else can go off every single night."
Toolson said the ultimate goal, however, is to win the WAC Tournament — something that's been a common refrain since the players-only meeting following the loss to Tarleton State in Orem on Feb. 8.
And Phillips said he knows how dangerous the first-round survivors can be in that setting.
"The WAC tourney is an accumulation of the year you've had," Phillips said. "We need to come out with the same aggression we had today in Vegas on Wednesday."
