The Seattle University men’s basketball team put the clamps on the Utah Valley offense Saturday night, allowing the Wolverines to hit just 27.3 percent of their field goal attempts, missing all of their three-point attempts, as the Redhawks earned a 53-33 victory in a Western Athletic Conference contest at KeyArena.
Jarell Flora (Bremeron, Wash.) led the Redhawks with 14 points, plus he pulled down four rebounds, while Isiah Umipig (Federal Way, Wash.) finished with 12 points, six rebounds, and three steals. Shore Adenekan (London, England) came off the bench and contributed 10 points, seven rebounds, and two steals, and Jack Crook (Manchester, England) led all players with 12 rebounds, part of a 37-29 Redhawk rebounding advantage.
“This is a credit to the guys for executing the scout, contesting every shot, and being animals in rebounding and loose-ball situations, as we held them to one shot pretty much the entire night,” Seattle U head coach Cameron Dollar said. “I am proud of their effort. We were committed to getting every rebound tonight, and we need to keep doing that going forward.”
Utah Valley (8-14, 3-5 WAC) jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first six minutes of the game, with Marcel Davis scoring four of those points. Back-to-back three-pointers by Flora and Umipig pulled Seattle U into an 8-8 tie, and the two teams exchanged points over the next six minutes.
A layup by Jadon Cohee (Langley, B.C.) started Seattle U on an 8-1 scoring run over a three-minute span as the Redhawks took their largest lead of the first half at 22-15. Adenekan hit a layup with four seconds remaining in the first half to extend Seattle U’s lead back to seven at 26-19 at halftime.
The two teams continued to exchange baskets through the first eight minutes of the second half before Seattle U finally broke the game open thanks to a 9-2 scoring run, punctuated by dunks from Emerson Murray (Vancouver, B.C.) and Adenekan. A dunk by Dayon Goodman with less than five minutes to go in regulation turned out to be Utah Valley’s final field goal of the night, as the Redhawks closed the game by outscoring the Wolverines 9-1.
Mitch Bruneel and Donte Williams led Utah Valley with 10 points apiece, plus they pulled down four rebounds each, while Davis, the WAC leader in assists coming into the game, did not have any assists to go along with his six points and six rebounds. As a team, the Wolverines committed 13 turnovers, leading to 13 Redhawk points, and missed all 17 of their attempts from behind the three-point line.
As a team, Seattle U shot 40.8 percent (20-of-49) from the field, including 4-of-14 from behind the three-point line, and 64.3 percent (9-of-14) from the free throw line. The 33 points allowed by the Redhawks is the lowest point total given up by a Division I Seattle U team to a Division I opponent, besting the previous mark of 36 points allowed to Portland State in an 85-36 victory during the 1958-59 season.
Seattle University (11-11, 4-4 WAC) hits the road next weekend, taking on current conference leader New Mexico State Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. local time (6 p.m. Pacific time), followed by a game at Texas-Pan American Saturday, Feb. 14, at 7 p.m. Central time (5 p.m. Pacific time). Both games will be broadcast on 770 AM KTTH, starting with the pregame show shortly before tipoff.