Las Vegas • Utah Valley never quite recovered from a poor start Friday night, losing 75-60 to Grand Canyon in the semifinals of the Western Athletic Conference basketball tournament at Orleans Arena.
Grand Canyon (22-10) scored 56 and 60 points against UVU in splitting the regular-season series, but the Lopes were almost unstoppable in taking a 41-27 halftime lead. Grand Canyon led 27-9 midway through the half as Italian center Alessandro Lever, who had made six 3-pointers all season, hit three of them in a row.
Trailing by 17 points early in the second half, UVU used a 16-3 run to get within 51-47.