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OREM — It might not be the scenario that the Utah Valley men's basketball team was hoping for after finishing the regular season 21-9 and finishing second in the Western Athletic Conference standings.
However, after falling to Grand Canyon in the WAC semifinals on Friday night, UVU will get to play more basketball.
The Wolverines will host Big Sky foe Eastern Washington on Tuesday night at the UCCU Center in Orem. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. MDT.
UVU is 1-1 all-time against the Eagles.
It is the second-straight year that UVU will play in the College Basketball Invitational. The Wolverines won their first two games of the 2017 tournament at Georgia Southern and at Rice before falling in the tournament semifinals to Wyoming.
Utah Valley is having its best season since the 2013-14 season when the Wolverines won the WAC regular season crown and earned an invite to the NIT. Twenty-two wins is the most since the 2006-07 season when the Wolverines finished 22-7 overall.
UVU started the season with the toughest 24 hours in college basketball when it traveled to then-No. 5 Kentucky and then-No.1 Duke on back-to-back nights.
The Wolverines then won four straight before crosstown rival BYU ended the winning streak with an 85-58 win in the UCCU Center.
Between Dec. 20 and prior to a big game at New Mexico State on Jan. 20 in Las Cruces, UVU won eight-straight games and entered Las Cruces with a perfect 4-0 conference record. However, the Aggies dominated UVU and handed the Wolverines their worst loss since the BYU game, 86-59.
UVU split the season series with New Mexico State for the second straight-year as it picked up an 86-79 win over the Aggies in Orem on Feb. 15. UVU also beat Grand Canyon for the first time in the Pope era on Jan. 27 at the UCCU Center.
For the second straight year, UVU made it to the WAC semifinals. In a rematch of the four-overtime thriller from 2017, UVU used a balanced attack led by cousins Jake Toolson and Conner Toolson to beat Cal State Bakersfield. It set the stage for a huge semifinal game against Grand Canyon, which was playing in the WAC Tournament for the first time since joining the conference.
Kyle McDonald is sports fan who loves the Chicago Cubs. Follow him on Twitter at @kylesportsbias
