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ST. GEORGE — Utah Tech hosted Utah Valley Saturday night in the first Western Athletic Conference game of the season, with the Trailblazers coming away with a 65-53 victory.
Though it was a foul-heavy and low-scoring game, it featured six players for Utah Tech finishing in double figures. Noa Gonsalves, Beon Riley and Tanner Christensen all put up 11 points or more, with Gonsalves leading all scorers with a season-high 18 points.
Utah Valley's Caleb Stone-Carrawell, Drake Allen and Tanner Toolson also scored double figures.
"This win means a lot. Utah Valley is one of our rivals, so it's a good win," Gonsalves said. "I started 0-of-4 or something like that, but my teammates continued to trust me like they always do, and I just had to make sure to keep firing."
The Trailblazers committed 21 fouls in the game to allow 24 free-throw attempts by the Wolverines, though Utah Valley only made 14 of them. Similarly, Utah Valley committed 20 fouls and saw Utah Tech go 19-of-29 at the charity stripe.
Utah Tech started the game with a 6-0 run before Utah Valley got going. Both offenses struggled in the first period, and it took until midway through before either team reached the 10-point mark. The two went a combined 3-of-17 from 3-point range and made just 15 field goals in the half.
At the break, the Trailblazers led 23-22 in the low-scoring affair.
The second half started with the teams trading shots, and it stayed close until Gonsalves hit a 3-pointer to put Utah Tech up 46-45 to give the team some positive momentum. That sparked a four-minute, 10-0 run for the Trailblazers as Utah Valley fell behind. The Wolverines never recovered and let their in-state rivals run away with a 12-point win.
Entering Saturday night's game, Utah Tech gave up an average of 76.5 points per game, but held Utah Valley to the fewest points allowed this season.
"The 40 minutes of tough defense, that's really what I saw," Trailblazers head coach Jon Judkins said. "This was the defending WAC champion. They're off to a great start this year, and I thought we did a really nice job tonight."
Utah Tech will continue conference play next week when they head to Riverside, California, to take on California Baptist Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, Utah Valley will host Weber State for another in-state competition.
