CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team led by as much as 12, still led with six minutes left and was tied with three minutes left before ultimately falling to the #14 University of Illinois Fighting Illini 94-85 on Friday at the State Farm Center.
 
Junior Justin Johnson led the Vaqueros (4-3) with 28 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including a career-high 3-of-5 from behind the arc, plus a career-high 11-of-14 from the line, three rebounds, two assists and one block. Graduate student Marek Nelson scored a career-high 23 points on a career-high tying 7-of-16 shooting from the field plus a career-high 7-of-9 from the line with seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block. Junior Ricky "Doc" Nelson scored 15 points with four assists. Freshman RayQuan Taylor finished with seven points and five rebounds. Graduate student Mike Adewunmi scored six points with five rebounds and a career-high tying three steals.
 
Kofi Cockburn led the Illini (4-2) with 38 points and 10 rebounds. Alfonso Plummer scored 30 points. Coleman Hawkins finished with 13 points.
 
The Illini jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the opening three minutes. A Johnson three and a Marek Nelson jumper gave the Vaqueros the lead. Then, down 10-9, Marek Nelson came up with a jumper, a dunk and a free throw as the Vaqueros scored 11-straight points to go up 20-10.
 
One Illini basket later, Johnson and Doc Nelson hit jumpers to cap what became a 20-4 run to give the Vaqueros a 24-12 lead at the 11:39 mark of the first half.
 
The Illini responded with a 7-0 run to pull within five before a Doc Nelson jumper put the Vaqueros up 26-19.
 
The Vaqueros pushed their lead back to eight at 32-24 on a pair of Johnson free throws with 5:37 remaining before the Illini scored nine-straight points to take the lead.
 
An Adewunmi layup put the Vaqueros up 34-33 at the 1:31 mark. The Illini scored the next four points before a Marek Nelson three tied the game at 37 with 29 seconds left in the half.
 
The Illini went up 51-50 early in the second half when Nelson sandwiched a three-pointer with free throws to put the Vaqueros up four.
 
The Vaqueros still led by four at 59-55 with 13:24 remaining before a 6-1 run put the Illini up 61-60. Doc Nelson responded with back-to-back layups to put the Vaqueros up 64-61.
 
The lead started going back and forth again, with the Vaqueros leading 73-72 on a pair of Marek Nelson free throws.
 
The game was tied at 82 on a Taylor three-point play with 3:03 remaining, but the Illini followed with a 6-1 run to take an 88-83 lead.
 
A Taylor layup brought the Vaqueros to within 88-85 with 1:26 to go, but the Illini hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the deal.
 
UTRGV returns home on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at UTRGVTickets.com. The party starts in the Vaquero Village at 5:30 p.m. Those unable to attend the game in person can watch in the United States on ESPN+ or internationally on the WAC Digital Network.

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