CORPUS CHRISTI – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros women's basketball team opened the season with a 70-59 loss to the East Carolina University Pirates in the first game of the Islanders Classic on Friday at the American Bank Center.
Junior
Shawnte' Goff led the Vaqueros (0-1) with 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 4-of-8 from behind the arc, plus 4-of-4 from the line with five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Goff's first three-pointer was the 100
th of her career, sparking a 17-4 run to open the second quarter as the Vaqueros came back from down 18-10 to take a 27-22 lead.
Goff passed Hall of Famer
Dawn Beachler (101, 1992-94) for the sixth most three-pointers in program history, now with 103. She also increased her career free throw total to 167, passing
Robin Garrett (166, 2005-09) for 10
th place in program history.
The Vaqueros missed all three of their long-range attempts in the first quarter, but after Goff connected six seconds into the second half, sophomore
Hildur Björg Kjartansdóttir hit one, Goff hit another, and then senior
Rickell Preston connected on the first three-pointer of her career. Late in the quarter, with the Vaqueros up 27-22, freshman
Bernesha Peters connected from beyond the NBA arc, and then, with the lead 29-26 and 33 seconds remaining, Goff did the same to push the lead to 32-26 at halftime.
Jada Payne led the Pirates (1-0) with 27 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Khadidja Toure scored 12 points with five rebounds.
I'Tiana Taylor scored 11 points with six rebounds and six steals.
Payne scored 10 points in the third quarter to help the Pirates take a 48-46 lead.
Payne hit the first basket of the fourth quarter as the Pirates went on an 11-2 run to go up 59-48. The Pirates extended their lead to 68-53 on a Toure three-pointer with 1:43 remaining, pushing the game out of reach.
The Vaqueros close out the tournament on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. when they face Cal Poly.
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