OREM, Utah. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) women's basketball team beat Utah Valley University (UVU) 64-45 on Saturday at Lockhart Arena to give head coach
Larry Tidwell his 70
th victory at UTRGV, tying the program record.
Tidwell is now tied with
DeAnn Craft who won 70 games from 2003-09. Tidwell will have a chance to break the record on Saturday at 7 p.m. when UTRGV closes out the regular season with a senior night tilt against New Mexico State at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in a game that will be televised throughout Texas on Spectrum Sports channel 323.
Tidwell is also the winningest head coach in Lamar history. Tidwell is just the fourth head coach to be the winningest head coach at two NCAA Division I institutions, along with Texas A&M's Gary Blair (Texas A&M and Arkansas), Air Force's Chris Gobrecht (Washington and Yale) and recently retired Jane Albright (Northern Illinois and Wisconsin).
UTRGV (18-11, 8-5 WAC) is now off to the best 29-game start in program history, one game ahead of last year's record-setting pace that saw the team finish with a program record .576 (19-14) winning percentage.
Senior
Shawnte' Goff led UTRGV with 17 points, four rebounds and three steals. Sophomore
Idil Türk scored 17 points while hitting five three-pointers. Junior
Hildur Björg Kjartansdóttir posted her fifth double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Freshman
Megan Johnson hit her first five shot attempts for 11 points and a career-high tying eight rebounds.
Jordan Holland led UVU (8-20, 3-10 WAC) with nine points.
UVU scored the first six points of the game, but Johnson made a layup, Türk hit a three and then Kjartansdóttir knocked down a jumper to give UTRGV the lead.
The game stayed tight for the rest of the quarter, but with the game tied at 14 early in the second, Kjartansdóttir made a layup and Türk hit a three to saprk a 20-4 run to put UTRGV up 34-18. Goff hit four baskets and a free throw during the run, including a three to end it.
UVU got as close as 13 in the third at 39-26, but UTRGV went on an 11-0 run, capped by a Türk three, to push the game out of reach.
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