DESTIN, Fla. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men's basketball team won the Destin Realty Emerald Coast Classic Pool B Championship by beating St. Francis Brooklyn 71-61 on Saturday at Northwest Florida State College.
 
Junior Nick Dixon led UTRGV (2-5) with 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including 2-of-4 from behind the arc, with a career-high nine rebounds, three assists and two steals. Sophomore Lew Stallworth scored 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Freshman Xavier McDaniel Jr. scored 11 points with five rebounds.
 
Glenn Sanabria led St. Francis (1-3) with 16 points. Yunus Hopkinson scored 13 points.
 
Stallworth scored eight of UTRGV's first 10 points to help UTRGV jump out to a 10-8 lead. St. Francis responded with a 9-0 run to take the lead, but Stallworth hit a pair of layups to help UTRGV scored six-straight to pull within one.
 
UTRGV tied the game at 34 on back-to-back Dixon layups early in the second half before regaining the lead on a McDaniel jumper that made it 47-45 midway through the half.
 
St. Francis went up 53-50 on a Hopkinson jumper with 7:44 remaining, but UTRGV hit 7 of its final 11 shots to close the game on a 21-8 run.
 
UTRGV is back in action on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it visits Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union.

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