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Show B2 SPORTS Wolverines tackling issues one at a time By KEVIN OLSEN Sports Writer The Arizona road trip produced split emotions for the Utah Valley women's basketball team. As the team participated in a two-game series in the Northern Arizona University Hilton Garden Inn Thanksgiving Classic they first fell short to NAU 73-59, then came back two days later to bring home a one-point win over Kent State 46-45. The loss to Northern Arizona came after the Wolverines shot a 44.8 percent from the court in the first-half before dropping to 32 percent in the second. One of the Utah Valley's biggest scorers, Sammie Jensen, shot 2-of-11 from the court and finished the night with eight points. Shane Maryott/UVU Review BASKETBALL from B1 "I feel like this team has offensive potential that we haven't quite reached yet," head coach Cathy Nixon said. On a positive note, Jensen hit 4-of-4 from the line while Jenna Johnson sank 12 points. Johnson trailed right behind sophomore Kim Bell, who led the team in scoring with 14 points and coming just shy of a double-double at seven rebounds. "It's the small pieces," Nixon said. "It's putting together the little things that are going to help us become a better basketball team." Coming off the loss against NAU, Utah Valley came back to play Kent State and saw Jensen scoring a doubledouble while Johnson led the team in scoring 13 total points. The Wolverines also received support off the bench as sophomore Whitney Jenkins played 14 minutes, scoring eight points. Despite the success from Jenkins, Nixon explained that, as part of the coaching staff, they are still trying to get a feel for where the team stands with rotations. "Whitney was a big key to us, being successful to get a little bit more spark on the perimeter scoring," Nixon said. "I take the responsibility myself that that's something, as a coaching staff, we have to do: find the right combinations of kids and find who can provide needs." The team's brightest aspect may have come from their defense. The Wolverines tied their season high in defensive rebounds with 29 and came home with 46 total rebounds. As Utah Valley went score- less for nearly seven minutes in the second half, they were able to hold off the offense of Kent State enough to let Jensen help finish to the onepoint win. As the season continued and the women's basketball team prepared for their next four games at home, they were still looking to improve their assists. A flaw that was never kicked last season, the team still holds a turnover record that is just below half of their assists. Nixon stays determined to focus on each "small piece" of the team one game at a time. "We're just concerned with our own game," Nixon said. "If we take care of what we need to than we have a chance to be successful." Kevin Olsen can be reached at kvncups12@gmail.com . She grew up on a potato farm in Idaho, but her performance on the court reflects much more excitement than that. Senior Abbie Beutler is playing in her second year here at Utah Valley University after transferring from Snow College where she earned a laundry list of awards. Beutler has played in every game so far this season as the team's go-to point guard and sports writer Kevin Olsen caught up with her for a Q&A. A. I wanted to come to UVU because of the dynamics of the team. I met the girls on the visit and they were a lot like the girls at Snow. I just liked everyone here. A. Yeah, at Snow College every time we turned the ball over we had to do five pushups. My freshmen year I threw the ball out of bounds so I jumped down to do my push-ups and just slammed my face on the court. Q. Is there any significance to your jersey number 12? A. That's just the number they gave me. I wish there was something cool, but I really did like John Stockton growing up. Q. What is the biggest difference to playing basketball here versus Snow College? A. The town. It's just a different environment. It takes forever to get anywhere. Q. The NBA lockout is claimed to close on Christmas Day. How do you feel about that? A. So happy. I already have a Jazz game planned for my birthday party. Q. What brought you to UVU? Q. Do you have an embarrassing basketball moment? "Take a short drive to American Fork, you'll be glad you did." much because it's a team game. I'm just lucky that I have teammates that can find me and that I have teammates that are pullin' for me." Another aspect that may factor into their up and down play has been their home and away record. It's not surprising to see their record at home is 4-0 while their road numbers is 0-4. That is something that is typically found with younger teams as they develop chemistry and trust in how to play with each other. The Wolverines, however, return several starters from last year and this team has had significant time together to work out the kinks. Most of the time in sports things are pretty cut and dry, one team played good defense, one team had an amazing offensive night, or one player couldn't be stopped another night. With this year's Wolverine squad it's all muddled and confusing. Did they win by so much because they played such amazing defense or did the other team have an off night? Did they lose because they didn't sleep in their own beds and didn't get enough rest? Or was it a closer game because the two teams were more evenly matched? With this year's bunch the answer could be yes, no or maybe to all of the above. This concept is not lost on coach Hunsaker. "It's not a polished unit or a well oiled machine," Hunsaker said. "There's a lot of work ahead of us with this team. We need to progress and find our identity offen- Q. What are some of your personal goals that you have planned for this season? A. My goal this year is to have fun and focus on enjoying the game. It's my last season playing on a competitive team and I want to enjoy every moment of it. I want to focus on building relationships with people around me. sively." When identity is an issue nearing a third of the way through the season, that could spell more troubles ahead and things may get worse before they get better. Utah State looms large on the horizon and may be the toughest game left as the Wolverines prepare to take on the Aggies on Dec. 6 at the Spectrum in Logan. If the Wolverines have any hope of postseason play beyond the Great West Conference tournament they need to make that game against the Aggies at least competitive if not win it outright. 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