Kansas City
Utah Valley
Red-Hot Wolverines Top Roos in WAC Action, 90-79
1/21/2016 10:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball
(Kansas City, Mo.) - Utah Valley hit 12-of-22 from three point range on Thursday night at Municipal Auditorium, and gave the short-handed Roos a 90-79 loss, despite a career-high performance from Shayok Shayok.
“Very disappointing in terms of our defensive effort tonight,” UMKC Head Coach Kareem Richardson said “We cut the lead a little bit, and had to try and use a few timeouts, the guys were exhausted. It takes so much out of you trying to make that run, playing from behind.”
UMKC (8-12, 1-4 WAC) got into an early hole against Utah Valley (8-11, 2-2 WAC), as the Wolverines were on fire from three-point land, hitting four threes in the first 8:30 on the way to a 17-8 lead.
The Roos cut the lead to as little as five, but UVU rallied back over the final five minutes of the period, and went into the half with a 14-point advantage. The Roos allowed the Wolverines to shoot 8-of-16 in the half, racking up 39 points to only 25 for UMKC.
The Roos went without leading scorer Martez Harrison, who did not play due to what was called coach's decision.
UMKC started to figure it out on offense in the second half, adjusting to the missing firepower. Shayok's big night was joined by LaVell Boyd, while Dashawn King also set his career-high with all 18 of his points in the second half. The Roos shot 59 percent in the final stanza, scoring 54 points, but UVU shot 52 percent, while going 25-of-26 from the line in the period.
The Roos took a 16-point UVU lead and cut it down to as little as five with three minutes to play, but they couldn't get a stop on defense to get any closer. The Wolverines iced the game in the final minute with free throws.
UMKC out-scored UVU 38-16 in the paint and had a 35-30 rebound edge, but it all came down to the three-point shooting of the Wolverines in the end.
Shayok finished the night with a team-best 21 points and nine rebounds, while Boyd tallied 20 points and King had 18. Darius Austin also chipped in with nine, while Kyle Steward posted eight points. King also dished out a team-best five assists.
UMKC will host first-place Grand Canyon on Saturday night at Municipal Auditorium, with tipoff slated for 7:05 p.m.
