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Press ReleaseOREM -- Utah Valley will cap the 2008-09 season by hosting the Division I Independent Championship beginning Thursday in the McKay Center.
Six teams will play nine games over three days with the championship set for Saturday at 7 p.m. MT. Chicago State, Longwood, NJIT, Savannah State and Texas-Pan American are the other five teams participating.
The Wolverines (14-10) open the tournament by hosting NJIT on Thursday at 7 p.m. UVU will also play Friday at 7 p.m. with Saturday's game time to be determined.
Utah Valley is coming off of a 94-86 win on Senior Day last Saturday against NJIT in a game that saw Robyn Fairbanks score a season-high 41 points on 18-for-20 shooting. On Tuesday, Fairbanks was named the Great West Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week for the eighth time this year.
Sandy Wall had 25 for the Wolverines, who improved to 4-1 this year against independent teams. In those five games, Fairbanks is averaging 30.0 points, 12.0 rebounds and hitting 74 percent from the floor.
With a six-team tournament and each team guaranteed three games, this weekend's tournament will be re-seeded following Thursday's opening round. Regardless of a win or a loss on Thurday, Utah Valley will be in the championship bracket by virtue of earning the No. 1 seed. The seeds were sorted according to the Feb. 24 official NCAA RPI.
No. 3 seed Texas-Pan American will face No. 4 Longwood in the tournament opener at 2 p.m. on March 5 and No. 2 seed Chicago State faces No. 5 Savannah State at 4:30 p.m.
(Courtesy Utah Valley University)
