Utah Valley University secured the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) regular-season championship with a 104-101 double-overtime victory against Utah Tech on Saturday at Burns Arena in St. George. The win marks Utah Valley’s second consecutive outright WAC title and the first time in program history that the Wolverines have achieved back-to-back conference championships.
The Wolverines improved their record to 24-7 overall and finished atop the WAC standings with a 14-4 mark. With this result, Utah Valley has won six straight games as they head into next week’s Air Force Reserve WAC Tournament at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. As the No. 1 seed, they will advance directly to Friday night’s semifinal round.
“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.”
Sherman Weatherspoon IV led Utah Valley with a career-high 27 points, shooting 9-of-12 from the field and making six of seven three-point attempts. His previous career high was 13 points.
“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.”
Jackson Holcombe contributed 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, narrowly missing a double-double with nine rebounds, while also adding seven assists and two steals. Trevan Leonhardt added 21 points—including five three-pointers—a career best for him, along with nine assists.
Tyler Weaver scored a career-high ten points off the bench, including two free throws with two seconds left that sealed the win after Utah Tech had closed within one point late in double overtime.
“Tyler Medaris was huge,” Phillips said about another key contributor who entered late after Hayden Welling fouled out. “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 Valley shot an even 50 percent from the field (36-of-72) and made nearly half their three-point attempts (13-of-28). Both teams collected 41 rebounds each; however, Utah Valley held an advantage inside by scoring more points in the paint.
This contest marked Utah Valley’s first double-overtime game since the 2016–17 season.
The Wolverines now prepare for their opening game as top seed at next week’s Air Force Reserve WAC Tournament semifinals scheduled for Friday night at Orleans Arena.
