A couple of teams in the middle-tier of the Western Athletic Conference face off in Seattle and Utah Valley. Who gets a leg up in the standings?
TV schedule: Saturday, February 3, 10:00 p.m. ET. Check Local Listings
Arena: KeyArena in Seattle, Washington
There’s no question that New Mexico State is the class of this league, having an unblemished record in conference play and having already mowed through the top teams in the WAC. The real question has been who’s the No. 2 team in the conference?
Grand Canyon was considered the favorite but they took a somewhat surprising loss to the second-place team in the league Utah Valley. Akolda Manyang had 14 points to lead the team, with everyone else contributing to the pot to pull off the home win. So far, the only loss for the Wolverines have been to those vaunted Aggies and this is looking like the best Utah Valley team since the program moved up to D-1 basketball not too long to go.
The tough part of the schedule is almost done for Mark Pope‘s team, with a battle in Seattle against a very good Redhawks team up next. Seattle has lost to both New Mexico State and Grand Canyon, with the other four wins coming by just four points or less.
Related Story: How dangerous is New Mexico State come March?
They’ll have a chance to really be apart of the equation at the top, but All-WAC caliber guard Martej Kavas will have to have a huge game. He leads the team in scoring at 17.0 ppg and makes nearly half of his 3-point attempts.
The “big” battle will be from the center position, with Manyang of Utah Valley taking on the 7’3 Aaron Menzies, one of the WAC’s top rebounders at 8.4 rpg. Because of the Wolverines’ balance on offense, their center doesn’t have to have a big game for them to win. That’s not the case for the Redhawk’s big man, who needs to improve on his 6.5 ppg average against the top teams this season.
Seattle has shown that they have the defense to compete in games and will have a good crowd on the team’s hands. But the Wolverines are just a step above the Redhawk’s level and should survive a tough fight.
Prediction: Utah Valley 73 – Seattle 67