Assistant Sports Editor
In the second matchup of the year against Utah Valley University, it was once again another blow out loss for CSU Bakersfield, losing 70-47 at the Icardo Center.
In the first game between the two, the Wolverines throttled the Roadrunners earning a 33-point victory, 75-42 on Saturday, Jan 6.
The two games were almost identical in how the games fell. The first half was close and then Utah Valley runs away with it in the second half.
If the season were to end today, CSUB would face UVU in the Western Athletic Conference tournament and Head Coach Rod Barnes is fine playing a team that has dominated the Roadrunners in conference play.
“That’s ok, we will get to Vegas and we will see what happens,” said Barnes.
“We won’t worry about the last games.”
In the first half, CSUB got out to an early lead. A three that beats the shot clock and two steals by senior guard Brent Wrapp helped the Roadrunners take a 9-4 lead.
Wrapp ended the night with 5 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.
Utah Valley stormed right back and scored the next eight points to take a 12-9 lead over CSUB.
UVU started to pull away as the first half ended, extending its lead to 30-19. The Roadrunners went on a 8-1 scoring run in the last 1:17 of the game to close the wolverine lead to within four, 31-27.
“In the first half we did pretty good job defending, in the second half they went on a little bit of a run and we started talking chances on defense and it snowballed from there,” said Wrapp.
The second half began and it was one that CSUB would like to redo. The Roadrunners scored two points in the first 6:39 seconds of the game.
On the other side of the court, Utah Valley scored 17 points. With 3:21 left in the second half the Wolverines reached their largest lead of 26.
The Roadrunners struggled from the field in the second half shooting 29.6 percent from the field and missing all nine of their three point shots.
The defense had its troubles allowing Utah Valley to shoot 50 percent or more in both halves from the field and 46 percent from the three point arch.
CSUB was outscored by 19 in the second half.
Senior night for the Roadrunners in their next game and senior center Moataz Aly is ready.
“I’m excited, I know it is going to be my last home game but we’re still going to go out and compete like its a regular game,” said Aly.
CSUB (11-16, 4-8 WAC) will host Seattle University (19-10, 8-4 WAC) Saturday, Jan. 24 at 6 p.m at the Icardo Center.
