The Park University Gilbert women's basketball team opened up a week of top flight competition taking on WAC power Utah Valley on Tuesday night in Orem, Utah.  As you might expect against a Division I team who was returning many of its players from a successful team from a year ago, the Buccaneers struggled to keep pace losing the Wolverines 90-47.

The Buccaneers (1-2) kept things competitive early, even holding a lead in the first quarter. The Buccaneers shot 46 percent from the floor in the first frame and made three of seven three-pointers. Then the Wolverines (1-0) started to show why they are one of the best teams in the WAC. The Wolverines went on a 38-11 run to turn a Park one-point lead, 15-14 into a 26-point halftime deficit 52-26.   

This essentially put the game away, but the Bucs continued to play hard throughout the second half. Elise Young scored eight points in the third quarter, but the Bucs only received five points combined from the rest of the team in the period.  The final quarter wasn't much better as Park Gilbert only managed eight points total.

For the game, the Buccaneers were hurt by 33 turnovers which led to 38 Wolverine points. Park was outrebounded 41-34 and only had four free throws compared to 17 trips to the charity stripe for UVU.  The Bucs did manage to turn UVU over 26 times and are forcing and average of 31 turnovers per contest so far this season. Park wasn't able to take advantage of the Wolverine miscues only scoring 10 points off of those turnovers. The Bucs got 24 points from their bench as head coach Jeff Fore played 12 players on the night.

Young led the Bucs in scoring for the third game in a row, scoring 11 points in 13 minutes in a very efficient night to pace the Bucs.  Macy Markus making a return to play her former team, scored eight points, pulled down four rebounds and had four assists. Kianna Turenne had seven points and Haley Valencia and Kayla Schroeder led the team in rebounds with five each off the bench.

Anna Poe made her collegiate debut tonight for the Bucs playing limited minutes (9) as she was just cleared to play a day ago.

Park Gilbert now will travel northwest to Pocatello, Idaho to take on the 2020-21 Big Sky champions and NCAA tournament team Idaho State on Saturday at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.