CHICAGO, Ill. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros men's basketball team beat the Chicago State University Cougars 89-79 on Sunday at the Jones Convocation Center.
 
Freshman Antonio Green led five Vaqueros (8-20, 4-9 WAC) in double-figures scoring with 22 points on 7-of-17 shooting, including 4-of-10 fro behind the arc, with seven rebounds and four assists. Graduate student Dakota Slaughter scored 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-7 from behind the arc, with five rebounds and four assists. Senior Shaquille Hines scored 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-7 from behind the arc, with five rebounds and four assists. Junior Christopher Ikuenobe scored a career-high 14 points on 3-of-3 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 shooting from the line. Graduate student J.J. Thompson scored 12 points with six assists and three steals.
 
The Vaqueros finished 11-for-32 from behind the arc.
 
Anthony Eaves led three Cougars (4-26, 0-13 WAC) in double-figures scoring with 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Trayvon Palmer scored 17 points with eight rebounds. Fred Sims Jr. scored 12 points with five rebounds.
 
The game was tight early, but with the lead at 9-7, the Vaqueros went on a 12-4 run to push their lead out to 10. The run was punctuated by a Hines dunk.
 
The Cougars responded by scoring the next 12 points to take a 23-21 lead on a Jawad Adekoya layup at the 8:39 mark.
 
The Vaqueros regained the lead at 27-26 on a Slaughter three, but the Cougars used a 7-0 run to jump back on top.
 
The game stayed tight until the start of the second half, when a Slaughter three tied the game at 46 and sparked a 29-8 run that saw the Vaqueros go up 72-54. The Vaqueros scored the last 11 points of the run, capped by a Hines dunk. The Vaqueros went 11-for-15 from the field during the run, including 5-of-9 from behind the arc while holding the Cougars to 4-of-17 shooting, including 0-of-6 from behind the arc.
 
The Vaqueros close out the regular season on Saturday at 7 p.m. against first place New Mexico State for senior day at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in a game that will be televised live throughout the state of Texas on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel (323). With a win or a Missouri-Kansas City loss at Chicago State, the Vaqueros will clinch the No. 5 seed in the WAC Tournament. Doors open at 6.

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