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Las Vegas • Utah Valley women's basketball coach Cathy Nixon used seven players, with five of them playing 30-plus minutes, in an overtime victory Wednesday.

To her, that's a luxury.

"Seven seemed hard to manage," Nixon said, partly kidding. "I was happy to have a few choices."

That's because the Wolverines (9-21) have played through injuries and a lack of depth all season. They've advanced to the semifinals of the Western Athletic Conference semifinals for the second year in a row, facing No. 2 seed Seattle on Friday (3:30 p.m. MST) at Orleans Arena.

No. 6 seed UVU rallied from seven points behind in the fourth quarter to force overtime Wednesday, then held Cal State Bakersfield to one free throw in a 59-53 victory.

"We've been in that position so many different times and we've seen how not responding the right way can cause us to sink and just give up the game," UVU guard Mariah Seals said.

The Wolverines rose this time, with guard Taylor Gordon scoring the last four points of regulation. Until then, Seals and center Sam Lubcke had accounted for 39 of UVU's 48 points. Jordan Holland's rebound basket sent UVU ahead in overtime.

"Every season is a journey, and this one's been a rocky one in a lot of ways," Nixon said.

Seattle beat Chicago State 78-60 in the quarterfinals. The Redhawks have defeated UVU twice — 69-51 in Orem in early February and 65-55 in Seattle last Saturday, when the Wolverines were within two points going into the fourth quarter.