Winning a regular-season conference championship wasn't enough, nor was winning the conference playoff tournament.
Utah Valley (27-4) finally qualified for the womens' national junior college basketball tournament with a 59-42 win Tuesday over Yavapai College (29-4) at the David O. McKay Events Center.The win means that UVSC will send both its mens and womens teams to the '96 national tournaments. The women will head to Tyler, Texas, March 12-16. The men won the Scenic West Athletic Conference tournament last week, earning an automatic bid to Hutchinson, Kansas, site of the mens' juco championship March 19-23.
The Wolverines seemed to be in control of the game almost from the start, holding the Roughriders to two points in the first five-minutes.
While the UVSC defense was sharp, the offense struggled. The Wolverines missed several layups early in the game, and despite a strong half from Trishia Ferrin and taking 11 more shots than Yavapai, they led only 38-30.
The second half belonged to Mary Hunter, who scored 19 of her 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting in the second stanza.
"They had a guard on me and we knew there was a mismatch," she said. "They are a tough team but our conference is just as tough or tougher."
Each year, the winner of UVSC's Region 18 must face the winner of Region 1, based in Arizona, to see who has a right to attend the national tournament. Region 18 has won the game the last two seasons.
UVSC was ranked 16th in the final JC poll, while Yavapai was listed 23rd after climbing as high as seventh. UVSC will be seeded fifth, based on a preseason drawing for Region 18.