Women's Basketball Begins Tough Stretch With Portland State Saturday :: Big test as UV will play four games in next eight days against tough competition

Big test as UV will play four games in next eight days against tough competition

Dec. 28, 2007

OREM, Utah - Utah Valley begins perhaps its toughest stretch of the season this weekend when Portland State comes to Orem for a 3:05pm tip-off on Saturday followed by a match up on Monday against Gonzaga. UV will also face Nevada and New Mexico State next week.

In total, UV will play four games in the next eight days against teams with a combined 31-13 record.

The Wolverines (10-3) defeated Western State last Friday, 92-67 in The McKay Center. In that game, Robyn Fairbanks scored 32 points while hitting 14-of-16 from the field. It was the 10th time in her career that she has scored 30 or more points in a game.

Julie McMurray had 17 points and Sandy Marvin added 15 as the Wolverines shot 56.5% from the field.

Fairbanks is currently fourth nationally in scoring, at 23.0 points per game. She leads all independent players in scoring as well as rebounding, averaging 9.6 per contest. Her career scoring average is currently 21.1 points per game.

The 10-3 start for Utah Valley matches last season's record start, but it was a seven-game losing streak following the start that had UV sitting at 10-10 after 20 games.

While Fairbanks continues the dominant play she displayed the past two seasons, Marvin (16.9 ppg) and McMurray (15.5 ppg) are both averaging career highs in scoring and have both been big reasons for the Wolverines' early success.

Portland State is 9-2 on the season with its only losses coming at UC Davis and, most recently, at Southern Cal.

The Vikings are led by All-America candidate Kelsey Kahle. Kahle, a junior G/F, is averaging 18.7 points and 7.5 rebounds. Delaney Conway is averaging 15.3 points per game and was named the Big Sky Conference's Player of the Week on Monday.

The Vikings are coached by Sherri Murrell, who is in first season in Portland after spending the past five seasons at Washington State of the Pac-10.

Portland State leads the all-time series 2-1 after last season's 85-84 overtime win over the Wolverines. Kahle had 32 points for the Vikings while Robyn Fairbanks scored 36 for UV.

Gonzaga is 7-5 against a tough schedule that is ranked 41st nationally in Jeff Sagarin's RPI ratings.

The Bulldogs have been without their star, Heather Bowman (21.2 ppg, 10.1 rpg), for the past three games. Two of those games included a 96-73 loss at #1 Tennessee and 64-61 loss at home against Big 10 Purdue. Bowman is expected to miss at least three weeks.

Most recently, Gonzaga won 82-68 at Montana State, where Utah Valley suffered its first defeat of the season in early December.

The all-time series between GU and UV is tied at 1-1 with the Wolverines winning 60-51 on December 28, 2005 in Orem.

Sandy Marvin currently has 893 career points at Utah Valley and poised to become the second player in school history to surpass the 1,000 point plateau later on this season.

Robyn Fairbanks was the first, doing so last season in just her 49th career game. She currently has 1,438 career points, 62 shy of reaching 1,500 for her career.