EDINBURG – The UTPA men's basketball team showed promise during its first season in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
 
Although the Broncs finished with nine wins, five of them came in WAC play, including season sweeps of fourth place Chicago State and sixth place Kansas City. The Broncs also picked up a win at Bakersfield.
 
Those three conference road wins were the most for the Broncs since winning five in 1994-95 as members of the Sun Belt.
 
Along with wins at Lamar and UTSA, the Broncs won five road games, their most since winning six in 2007-08.
 
The Broncs also picked up wins against Huston-Tillotson and Tennessee Tech.
 
"In terms of wins and loses, you'd like to have more wins," Broncs head coach Dan Hipsher said. "But, in many ways, we won more games than we lost in terms of being competitive. What you try to do is give your kids their best chance to be successful. I was happy that we did that and that our kids responded to that and put their best effort forward almost every night."
 
That effort gave the Broncs a chance to win 13 additional games, including:
77-73 vs. Sam Houston State (Broncs were within one twice in final minute)
77-65 vs. Houston (Game was tied with 9:21 remaining)
66-60 vs. IPFW (Broncs were within two with 1:31 left)
55-49 @ SIU Edwardsville (Broncs led by one with 2:07 to go and were within three with :15 left)
72-65 vs. UTSA (Broncs were within two with 3:19 remaining)
57-48 @ TCU (Broncs led by five with 6:35 left)
91-85 @ Grand Canyon (Broncs were within one with :51 to go)
53-46 @ Texas A&M (Broncs were within three with 11:14 remaining)
86-85 (2 OT) vs. Idaho (Broncs led with :04 seconds left in second overtime)
72-64 vs. Bakersfield (Broncs led by one with 5:39 to go)
70-63 (OT) @ Idaho (Broncs were within two with 2:13 remaining in overtime)
45-42 @ Utah Valley (Broncs were within one with :20 left and missed a three at the buzzer)
79-78 (OT) vs. Grand Canyon (Broncs were within one with :04 left in overtime and missed a turnaround jumper at the buzzer)
 
If the Broncs had gone 7-6 in those games, they would have finished the season at .500 with a 16-16 record. Additionally, if they had gone 3-3 in the WAC games, they would have also finished at .500 with an 8-8 record.
 
"You know good things are happening when you go to the A&Ms, TCUs and places like that and have opportunities to compete into the second half and have opportunities to win those games, and then do the same with teams like Houston and Sam Houston State here at home," Hipsher said. "Many of our conference games went well into the second half. We couldn't finish them off. We were what we were, but in many ways, we competed at a level somewhat above ourselves and that's a great credit to the kids and their work ethic."
 
Two of the Broncs top rotation players return next season, in the Shaq Attack of rising senior guard Shaquille Boga and rising junior forward Shaquille Hines.
 
In his first season with the Broncs, Boga stepped into the point guard position and averaged 14.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and a WAC-best 2.1 steals in 31 games. He also led the WAC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.84.
 
"To be honest, he was somewhat of a G-d-send for us because we were only able to add two kids last year, and between him and Javorn [Farrell], we got a lot of mileage out of those two," Hipsher said. "Both of them led us in scoring and Shaq led us in three-point shooting and assists, had a great assist-to-turnover ratio, and really improved defensively as the season wore on."
 
Farrell led the Broncs by averaging 16.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.6 steals in 28 games (27 starts). He ranked eighth in the WAC in scoring.
 
The other part of the Broncs' Shaq Attack was Hines, who earned UTPA Male Breakout Athlete of the Year honors after averaging 12.8 points and 6.3 rebounds overall, including 14.3 points and 7.1 rebounds in conference play. He shot .514 in WAC play while shooting .488 overall.
 
"Shaq Hines came off of scoring four points and playing 15 minutes per game to playing 33 minutes and averaging 13 points and seven rebounds per game," Hipsher said. "I thought he became far more consistent as the year wore on. He became a more consistent performer throughout the conference, showing that he's going to be a force to be reckoned with in the league. He's the prefect motion type player. He can play inside, outside, slash… If we clean up his jump shot more he'll be even more of a threat."
 
The return of both Boga and Hines will give the Broncs a pair of veterans who will play significant minutes and serve as an example for the newcomers.
 
"We're looking for great things out of the Shaq Attack next year," Hipsher said. "Hopefully we can enable them to grow as players with more competition in practice, giving them more reason to have pressure to play well."

Support UTPA Men's Basketball | Become a Fan on Facebook | Follow the Broncs on Twitter | Follow the Broncs on Instagram | Follow the Broncs on YouTube