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Las Vegas • As the clock wound down in regulation and his team's lead was dwindling Friday night, Utah Valley coach Mark Pope found himself wishing the game would end soon.
That didn't happen — not then, and not for a long, long time. UVU didn't like the ultimate ending, Cal State Bakersfield's 81-80, four-overtime victory in the semifinals of the Western Athletic Conference basketball tournament at Orleans Arena.
The No. 1-seeded Roadrunners advanced to Saturday's championship game, leaving the Wolverines to wonder what they could have done differently after an inspiring attempt to make history in the program's fourth season of WAC membership.
The teams compiled some staggering numbers over 60 minutes. The slice of that hour of basketball that UVU will most remember is the last 2 minutes, 40 seconds of regulation when the Wolverines lost an eight-point lead — which seemed like a landslide, the way these teams were struggling to score.
Pope blamed himself for UVU's tentative response to Bakersfield's pressing defense, with a series of turnovers enabling the Roadrunners to come from eight points down the last 2:40 of regulation.
"I did a poor job getting our players to stay in attack mode against the press," he said. "I wish I could take that back."
There would have been enough regrets to go around for whichever team lost this contest, considering how it played out in regulation. And then the longer the game lasted, the better it got. Even with nobody making a buzzer-beating shot — with five opportunities in all — the teams delivered all kinds of drama.
Bakersfield received a bye into the semifinals, and coach Rod Barnes cautioned his team to expect two difficult games in Las Vegas. "Maybe not four overtimes," he said.
That's only one of several records in WAC tournament play, which began in 1984. UVU grabbed 68 rebounds, while committing 28 turnovers. Bakersfield made 32 of 45 free throws; as of the second overtime, the Roadrunners had produced as many points from the line (31) as from the field.
The teams combined to make 23 of their first 100 shots from the field, and then UVU's Brandon Randolph suddenly got hot, helping his team build a 49-41 lead. It didn't last.
Both teams had plenty of chances during the four extra periods. UVU's Ivory Young missed one free throw but made the other, leading to the third overtime. The Wolverines needed Young's three-point play on a drive with 25 seconds left to force another session. But then Young missed wildly on a driving attempt in the last second of the fourth OT.
Young's teammates "trusted me with it," he said. "I might have made a better play … but they believed in me and I went out and tried to make a play."
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