Las Vegas • Utah Valley and Cal State Bakersfield played 60 minutes of basketball before deciding anything in the Western Athletic Conference tournament semifinals last March.
UVU will try to advance after competing with the Roadrunners for the standard 40 minutes in Thursday’s quarterfinals. Utah Valley is led by former University of Utah guard Kenneth Ogbe, who averages 13.4 points and made the All-WAC first team. Brandon Randolph and Conner Toolson were named to the second team.
The No. 2-seeded Wolverines dominated Bakersfield in two regular-season meetings, winning by an average of 28 points. UVU should be confident in its return to Orleans Arena, but the returning players also will have to shake the memories of last March, when they lost an eight-point lead in the last 2:40 of regulation and missed a winning shot attempt in the fourth overtime of an 81-80 defeat.