(St. George, Utah – Dec. 2, 2023) Utah Tech men's basketball played Saturday night, defeating the reining WAC Champion Utah Valley Wolverines 65-53 at Burns Arena. With the result, Utah Tech improves its record to 4-3 on the year with a perfect 1-0 record at home and against WAC opponents.
 
"The 40 minutes of tough defense, that's really what I saw," Head Coach Jon Judkins said after the game. "The other thing we talked about as a team is that not only was it our first conference game, first home game in over a month, but this was the defending WAC champion. They're off to a great start this year and I thought we did a really nice job tonight."
 
Sporting the same starting five that opened last game's win over Lindenwood, it would be freshman Aric Demings who provided the Trailblazers an early spark. After hitting a pull-up jumper on the game's opening possession, Demings added a pair of free throws before blocking his second shot of the year to ignite the Trailblazer faithful; Utah Tech would score on the very next possession to take an early 6-0 lead with 18:14 on the clock.
 
Both offenses went cold after that early run, but the Wolverines would slowly but surely find some offense, capping a 10-1 run at the 10:57 mark with a mid-range jumper. After slowing down the Trailblazer offense started to find some life, with a pair of Tennessee Rainwater free throws sparking an offense that used Unisa Turay and Noa Gonsalves triples to take a 19-13 lead with 5:16 remaining in the first half.
 
After the visitors battled back in the waning minutes of the first half it was Trailblazers 23, Wolverines 22 at the halftime horn.
 
The early portions of half number two would see the lead change hands often, alternating five times in the first five minutes. Though UVU would go an regain the lead, Utah Tech continued to find looks that immediately tied the game. Tanner Christensen scored four game-tying points across the next 90 seconds, even putting the Trailblazers ahead, 36-35, as he converted an and-one opportunity with just under 14 minutes to go.
 
UVU took the lead thanks to a pair of free throws at the 10:21 mark and would increase the lead to four, but Beon Riley led a 12-0 run that pushed the lead to eight points with 6:31 on the clock; Riley scored seven of those points – five of which came from the free throw line.
 
Five-straight Wolverine free throws would bring the game within three, but Hamed Olayinka went 2-2 at the line with 4:07 to go as the Trailblazer defense would limit UVU to just three points in the final four minutes of action to take the 65-53 win.
 
Gonsalves' strong outing culminated in a game-high 18 points to go with three rebounds, four assists and two steals on 7-15 shooting (4-9 3 PT), while Riley paired 17 points with a career-high 13 rebounds, shooting 4-10 from the field and 8-11 from the line while adding two assists and two steals. Christensen's night ended with 10 points and four boards while Demings had six points, two rebounds and three assists.
 
"We have a Star Wars helmet for the player of the game and tonight we gave it to both Beon and Noa. Noa hit some big shots late, especially that one late in the shot clock, but I loved how he was defending," Coach Judkins said. "We were switching a lot and they were really good about talking as a team which I loved to see."
 
"This win means a lot - Utah Valley is one of our rivals so it's a good win, good conference win," Gonsalves added.  "I started 0-4 or something like that but my teammates continued to trust me like they always do and I just had to make sure to keep firing."
 
Jaylen Searles paired five points with 10 rebounds and a steal while Olayinka (four points, two rebounds, two blocks) led the Trailblazer bench in minutes played with 14.
 
As a team Utah Tech shot 20-45 (44.4%) from the field, hitting six shots from deep and 19 at the line. The Trailblazers controlled the glass in this one, out-rebounding UVU 39-27, pulling down seven offensive boards in the process and scoring 18 points in the paint. With six steals and four blocks the Trailblazer defense forced 12 Wolverine turnovers that were converted into 12 points off turnovers and seven on the break.
 
The back-and-forth affair early in the game culminated in 14 lead changes and the score sitting level on seven different occasions.
 
Utah Tech returns to action on Wednesday, heading back on the road for a single game at California Baptist before hosting Idaho next Saturday.