HUNTSVILLE – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team dropped the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) opener to the Sam Houston Bearkats 86-78 on Monday at Johnson Coliseum.
 
Junior Justin Johnson led the Vaqueros (5-8, 0-1 WAC) with 22 points, a career-high tying four assists and two steals. Graduate student Marek Nelson scored 19 points with six rebounds and four assists. Graduate student Mike Adewunmi scored 12 points with seven rebounds. Freshman RayQuan Taylor scored nine points with four rebounds. Junior LaQuan Butler finished with eight points.
 
Savion Flagg led the Bearkats (7-8, 2-0 WAC) with 27 points and 17 rebounds. Demarkus Lampley scored 19 points. Jarren Cook finished with 15 points.
 
The Vaqueros jumped out to a 5-2 lead on a Taylor layup and a Nelson three.
 
The Vaqueros led 7-6 on a pair of Nelson free throws, 9-8 on a layup by sophomore Quinton Johnson II, 12-11 on a Nelson three-point play, and 20-18 and 22-21 on Butler layups.
 
The Bearkats used a 16-5 run to go up 37-27 before the Vaqueros scored the final four points of the half to pull within 37-31.
 
Adewunmi opened the second half with two free throws to bring the Vaqueros withing 37-33, but the Bearkats responded with a 19-1 run to go up 56-34.
 
The Bearkats led 84-60 with 2:52 remaining when dunks by Justin Johnson and Adewunmi fueled an 18-3 run to close out the game.
 
UTRGV plays the WAC home opener against Grand Canyon on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at UTRGVTickets.com. The party starts in 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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