(St. George, Utah - Feb. 20, 2025) - The Trailblazers battled back from an early deficit to force overtime on Thursday night falling 79-77 to Utah Valley at Burns Arena.

"We know we can play with everyone. That is the number one team in our conference and we are at the bottom and we should have beat these guys. We can play with anyone and it is time for us to get this turned around, we are so close and we just have to get a couple bounces and this thing can change."

Utah Tech (6-20, 2-9 WAC) was led by the experienced pair of seniors in Noa Gonsalves and Beon Riley.

Gonsalves finished with a team-leading 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 from behind the three-point line and added a career-high three blocks.

Riley tallied his eighth double-double of the season finishing with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Two other Trailblazers notched double figures with Stone Hutchings chipping in 14 points off the bench and Samuel Ariyibi added 11 points, seven rebounds and a season-high four blocks.

Utah Valley (19-7, 11-1 WAC) was led by 24 points from Tanner Toolson and had two more Wolverines finish in double digits with Carter Welling adding 16 points and Dominick Nelson poured in 11 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals.

How It Happened
Utah Valley raced out to a 22-2 lead after the opening six minutes, but the Trailblazers slowly clawed their way back into the contest using an 11-4 run, capped by a three-pointer from Gonsalves, to cut the Wolverines' lead to 26-13.

A layup by the Wolverines kept UVU ahead by 20 (40-20), but six straight points from Hutchings and a layup by Gonsalves made it 40-28.

Halting the run for the Trailblazers was a layup for Utah Valley, but Hutchings stayed hot with a three-pointer and layup to bring the deficit to nine at 42-33 as neither team scored over the final 2:31 of the opening half.

The second half saw Utah Valley continue to lead by as many as 11 (58-47) with 8:30 to play, but a 15-3 run for the Trailblazers over the next four-and-half minutes gave Utah Tech a 62-61 lead with 4:05 left in regulation.

Trading the lead back-and-forth four times over the next three-plus minutes, the Trailblazers led 68-66 after a layup by Ariyibi with 47 seconds remaining.

UVU countered with a layup eight seconds later to tie the score as each team missed a layup in regulation to send the Trailblazers to overtime for the first time this season.

Falling behind 77-72 after the first three minutes of the extra session, the Trailblazers continued to battle with Hakim Byrd nailing a three-pointer and layup to knot the game at 77.

A late layup by Toolson gave the Wolverines a 79-77 advantage as Riley had an opportunity to win the game with a three-pointer at the buzzer, but came up short.

Numbers to Know

• The Trailblazers fall to 3-7 all-time against Utah Valley and 2-2 in St. George.
• Utah Tech shot 40.6 percent (26-64) from the field for its sixth straight game shooting over 40 percent from the field.
• UT knocked down 12 of its 24 three-point attempts for its second-highest three-point performance of the season behind only the 57.7 percent the Trailblazers hit against UT Arlington on Jan. 9.
• The Trailblazers out rebounded the Wolverines, 40-36 to fall to 5-4 when out rebounding their opponent.
• It was the seventh time this season the Trailblazers have dropped a contest by three points or less.
• Gonsalves moved into fifth place in program history in career points moving past Brandon Simister (2012-18) as he now has 1,152 career points.
• Riley's 13 rebounds were his most in a WAC conference game this season surpassing his previous best of 12 vs. Abilene Christian on Feb. 6.
• Gonsalves led the Trailblazers in scoring for the 10th time this season and it was Riley's 16th time leading the team in boards.
• It was the most points Hutchings has ever scored against a Division I opponent as it was his second-highest career scoring performance behind only 17 vs. Whittier on Dec. 16.
• Ariyibi recorded double figures for the seventh time this season and it was his first time since Jan. 16 at Seattle U.

Up Next
The Trailblazers head down to Abilene Christian (13-13, 5-6 WAC) on Saturday for a contest at 5 p.m. MT at Moody Coliseum.