UMKC finishes road trip with second straight loss

It was an unproductive road trip for UMKC basketball this week.

UMKC was knocked back by Utah State on Saturday night 79-67 in Orem, Utah. It was their second loss in three nights, as the ‘Roos stumbled at Seattle on Thursday 69-64.

UMKC dropped to 10-18 on the season, 5-8 in the WAC. Utah Valley (19-8, 8-4) completed a season sweep of UMKC.

Xavier Bishop scored a game-high 19 points for the Kangaroos on Saturday. Bishop made 8 of 17 shots from the field, including 3 of 9 on three-pointers. Bishop also had six assists.

Utah Valley, which shot 50 percent from the field for the game compared to UMKC’s 43.3 percent, was led by Conner Toolson and Baylee Steele, who each finished with 15 points.

The Kangaroos had a 16-8 lead with just over 12 minutes left in the first half. The Wolverines, though, outscored UMKC 31-17 the rest of the half for a 39-33 halftime lead.

UMKC was the better team in the early going of the second half as well and had a 48-46 advantage with 13:12 left in the game. But over the next five minutes, Utah Valley put together a 16-4 run for a double-digit lead and held off the Kangaroos from there.

UMKC returns home for its next game: The Kangaroos will play host to New Mexico State on Thursday night at Swinney Center.

This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 10:19 PM.