spacer  
 
 

 
Rebekah Peterson is third on the team in scoring with a 6.1 ppg average
  
 
Wolverines Host Idaho State in Shurian Family Activity Center

Bengals look for revenge after UV's win in Pocatello

Jan. 5, 2007

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Coming Up...
Utah Valley State (10-5) will attempt to snap a two-game skid when Idaho State (3-8) comes to Orem on Saturday at 3:05pm MT. The game will be played in the Shurian Family Activity Center.

Live Gametracker can be accessed by clicking HERE while a live stream of Idaho State's broadcast can be heard by going to www.ISUBengals.com or directly to the link at www.kisu.org/stream.ram.

Wolverine sophomore Robyn Fairbanks leads the nation in scoring, averaging 26.3 points per game. She is also among the national leaders in field goal percentage, shooting 58% from the floor.

The game will be a rematch of the 89-82 overtime win in Pocatello on December 2nd. In that contest, Utah Valley trailed 75-67 with :54 seconds remaining in regulation before tying up the game and forcing the overtime.

Julie McMurray set career highs of 20 points and 11 rebounds in the win while ISU's Andrea Lightfoot scored 27 and the Bengals attempted 42 three pointers.

Utah Valley State is coming off of two losses on a trip to Portland last week. After suffering its worst performance of the season, a 79-57 loss at Portland, UV lost a heartbreaking overtime game to Portland State, 85-84.

In the loss at Portland State, Fairbanks had 36 points but it was a technical foul with 2.7 seconds remaining that was the difference in the game.

Fairbanks' Independent Reign Continues...
Robyn Fairbanks was again named the Division-I Independent Player of the Week after averaging 33.5 points and 7.8 rebounds during a four-game stretch from December 18-31.

It's the third time this season that she has won the award and the fifth time in her career. The three times she has won it this year have all come in the last five weeks.

Fairbanks set an NCAA school record with 34 points in a one-point loss to UC Riverside and broke the record one game later with a 43 point, 14 rebound performance in a win over Montana State.

Most recently she scored 36 points in a one-point overtime loss at Portland State. Fairbanks shot 64% (51-for-80) from the field and was 6-for-9 from the three-point line in the four games.

She also became the school's NCAA career scoring leader in last Thursday's game at Portland, surpassing Miriam Palkki for first on the list.

Close Calls...
Despite dropping four of its last five games, Utah Valley State is still off to its best start since making the jump to Division-I Athletics in 2003. Still though it's hard not to play woulda, coulda, shoulda with three of the five Wolverines losses.

The home losses to Utah and UC Riverside and the loss at Portland State have been be a combined total of four points.

The Utah game was a two-point double-overtime loss with Julie McMurray's last second three-pointer just rimming out at the buzzer. Then the Wolverines had their chance against Riverside but Asumi Nakayama's runner lipped out in a one-point loss. And finally the controversial technical at Portland State capped off UV's struggles in close games with another one-point defeat.

Wolverines vs. the Big Sky...
Saturday's contest will wrap up play against schools from the Big Sky Conference for the year. The Wolverines are 3-1 against Big Sky teams so far this season. The wins came at Idaho State and Weber State and at home against Montana State. The lone loss was last Saturday's defeat at Portland State.

Scouting the Bengals...
Idaho State is 3-8 on the season but is 3-2 in its last five games. Most recently, the Bengals lost by eight, 86-78 at Boise State.

ISU is led by Natalie Doma's 19.3 points and Andrea Lightfoot's 16.2 points per game. Doma also leads the team with an 8.9 rebounds per game average.

Jon Newlee is in his fifth season as head coach at Idaho State. Last year he led the Bengals to a regular season Big Sky crown and a trip to the NIT.

Looking Ahead...
The Wolverines will be out on the road again next week in Southern California when they travel to UC Irvine on Tuesday and UC Santa Barbara on Thursday. Tip-off for both games is 8pm MT.