Feb. 9, 2007

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Coming Up...
Utah Valley State (11-11) returns home this week to host Texas-Pan American (9-14) on Saturday at 7:05pm MT in the Shurian Family Activity Center.

The Wolverines split two games last week on the road, winning 79-48 at New Jersey Tech before falling 82-70 at IPFW.

During the week, Robyn Fairbanks averaged 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds and recorded her ninth "double-double" with 17 points and 12 boards against NJIT.

Fairbanks leads all independents in scoring (24.3) and field goal percentage (.553) and is second in rebounds. Hollie Beaman is first in assists with a 4.23 apg average while Asumi Nakayama is third in both assists (3.5) and 3-pt percentage (.408).

As a team, UV is first in scoring offense (74.3), assists (17.4) and field goal percentage (.435).

The win over NJIT ended a seven-game losing streak for the Wolverines and after a record start, UV is just 2-10 in its last 12 games.

UV leads the all-time series against UTPA 2-1 with Saturday's contest being the first of two games this season between the clubs. Utah Valley will travel to Edinburg, Texas for the season finale on March 3rd. In the last meeting between the two, Texas-Pan American won at home 65-49 in the final game of the 2005-06 season.

Fairbanks Reaches 1,000 Point Milestone...
Sophomore Robyn Fairbanks scored her 1,000th career point against IFPW last Saturday, reaching the milestone in just 49 career games. She's the first Wolverine to reach that mark in the school's young NCAA history.

"It's amazing the short amount of time that it's taken her," said head coach Cathy Nixon. "The word I've used over and over for Robyn has been consistent. It's been that way since her first game here as a freshman. We're really fortunate to have her in our program and it's exciting to see her getting better despite of what everybody tries to do to stop her."

McMurray Named Newcomer of the Week...
Freshman Julie McMurray was named Division-I Independent Newcomer of the Week on Tuesday after averaging 17.5 points per game in two contests last week.

In a win over New Jersey Tech, McMurray had 13 points and two steals and followed that up with a career-high 22 points on 7-for-12 shooting against IPFW. For the week McMurray shot 54.2% (13-for-24) from the field.

On the year, McMurray is averaging 6.6 points and 3.4 rebounds per game for the Wolverines. It's the first time a Utah Valley player has earned the award this season.

Scouting the Broncs...
Texas-Pan American is 9-14 heading into Saturday's game in Orem. They are 2-2 in United Basketball League play with wins over North Dakota State and New Jersey Tech and losses to South Dakota State and IPFW.

The Broncs are led in by LeKeisha Gray, who averages 10.5 points and MaHogany Daniel's 6.8 rebounds per game.

As a team, they lead all D-I indepedents defensively, allowing just 59.0 points per game.

Looking Ahead...
The Wolverines will hit the road again next week with games at North Dakota State next Thursday and South Dakota State on Saturday.

Last Time Out...
Utah Valley State made a late charge but it wasn't enough as IPFW held on for an 82-70 win Saturday afternoon in Indiana. In the game, sophomore center Robyn Fairbanks became the first player to reach 1,000 career points since Utah Valley's jump to Division-I athletics.

She reached the milestone on her 13th point of the game, a free-throw with 14:20 left in the second half. Fairbanks has a career average of 20.6 points per game and reached the plateau in just 49 career contests. Fairbanks had 22 points on 7-for-9 shooting to go along with nine rebounds in 23 minutes of action while freshman Julie McMurray scored a career-high 22 points off the bench.