SAN ANTONIO – Redshirt senior Amara Graham scored a career-high 26 points to lead The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's basketball team past the UTSA Roadrunners 60-50 for its first victory of the season on Monday at the UTSA Convocation Center.  
 
Graham went a career-high 10-of-18 from the floor while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out a pair of assists. The Vaqueros (1-1) got eight points from sophomore Jena' Williams, who also added five rebounds and five assists. Sophomore Halie Jones also scored eight points while grabbing six rebounds. 
 
Adryana Quezada paced UTSA (1-1) with a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds while Yuliyana Valcheva added 12 points with nine rebounds. 
 
The Roadrunners jumped out to the quick 12-2 lead after a jumper from Valcheva with 5:01 left in the first quarter. Jones then kicked of a 9-3 run for the Vaqueros as she knocked down a jumper that made it 12-4. UTRGV then got a layup from sophomore Sydney Cajero, an old-fashioned three-point play from Amara Graham and another layup from Cajero to get within 15-11 at the end of the first. 
 
Graham opened the second quarter with four-straight points as she knocked down a jumper and converted a pair of free throws to tie the game at 15-15. Freshman Arianna Sturdivant then knocked down a pair of three-pointers to give UTRGV the 21-19 lead with 4:15 left in the half. 
 
UTRGV got back-to-back buckets from Graham and senior Iva Belosevic to push its lead to 25-21 with 2:46 left in the half. Then, Graham added a three-pointer followed by a layup by sophomore Tiffany McGarity that gave the Vaqueros the 30-25 lead at the end of the half. 
 
Graham and McGarity teamed up once again with back-to-back buckets to open the third quarter giving UTRGV the 34-35 lead. UTSA answered with a 7-0 run to get within 34-32 but a jumper by Graham made it 38-34 UTRGV with 2:11 left in the third. 
 
In the fourth, UTSA got within 44-40 after a pair of free throws by Valcheva but UTRGV put together a 13-4 run to take its biggest lead of the night at 57-44 to put the game out of reach. 
 
UTRGV will be back in action on Wednesday, December 2, when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 4 p.m. at Bert Ogden Arena in the Bert Ogden Arena series, presented by the City of Edinburg, as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union.
 
Seating will be limited at Bert Ogden Arena and with single game tickets available at www.BertOgdenArena.com. 

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