EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) women's basketball team improved to 7-2 for the first time in program history by beating the University of Massachusetts 67-59 in the first round of the Battle on the Border Tournament on Friday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Junior
Quynne Huggins led UTRGV with a career-high 17 points while going a career-best 5-for-8 from behind the arc. Freshman
Amara Graham scored a career-high 11 points. Sophomore
Megan Johnson scored 10 points with a career-high four assists and two steals. Freshman Brownsville Saint Joseph-alum
Valeria Tapia finished with 10 points. Junior
Krisynthia Sampson scored nine points with 10 rebounds and a career-high tying three steals. Junior
Jameka Dowell dished out a career-high seven assists.
Maggie Mulligan and
Genesis Rivera led UMass (4-4) with 14 points and six rebounds each.
Hailey Leidel scored 12 points with seven rebounds.
Bre Hampton-Bey scored 10 points with seven assists and five steals.
UMass jumped out to a 7-2 lead over the first two minutes. That's when UTRGV caught fire from behind the arc, going 5-for-8, including two three-pointers by Huggins and one each by Johnson, Tapia, and junior
Idil Türk, to fuel a 17-4 run to go up 19-11.
UTRGV finished shooting a season-best .448 from behind the arc while hitting a season-high tying 13 three-pointers in 29 attempts.
UMass pulled within 22-19 early in the second quarter before a pair of Huggins three-pointers and two layups and two free throws by Graham powered a 12-5 run that put UTRGV up 34-24.
UMass opened the third quarter on an 8-3 run to pull within 39-34 before baskets by Johnson and graduate student Weslaco alum
Laura Van Tilburg sparked a 13-4 run to push the game out of reach.
UTRGV looks to "sock it to UTSA" on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Battle on the Border Tournament finale. The first 200 fans in attendance at the UTRGV game will receive UTRGV socks. UMass faces Mississippi Valley State at 12 p.m. Doors open at 11 a.m.
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