ST. GEORGE, Utah – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team dropped the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) opener to the Utah Tech University Trailblazers 81-66 on Thursday at Burns Arena.
Sophomore
Will Johnston led the Vaqueros (8-5, 0-1 WAC) with 24 points, three rebounds and a career-high tying two steals. Junior
Daylen Williams scored a career-high11 points with nine rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. Graduate student
Dima Zdor scored eight points with four rebounds and one block. Sophomore
Sherman Brashear scored eight points with three rebounds, three assists and a career-high tying two steals.
Isaiah Pope led the Trailblazers (9-5, 1-0 WAC) with 20 points with five rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Jacob Nicolds scored 18 points with nine rebounds.
Tanner Christensen scored 10 points with six rebounds.
Dancell Leter scored nine points with 13 rebounds and two blocks.
Cameron Gooden scored seven points with three rebounds, six assists and two steals.
Frank Staine finished with seven points and five rebounds.
The Vaqueros trailed 5-0 early. Brashear hit a 3 to spark a 9-4 run to tie the game at 9 in the opening minutes. The Trailblazers scored the next nine points as part of a 15-4 run to take the lead before Johnston hit back-to-back 3-pointers as part of an 11-3 run to bring the Vaqueros within 27-24.
The Vaqueros were again within three at 32-29 on a Brashear layup.
A Zdor layup early in the second half brought the Vaqueros within 41-35, but the Trailblazers scored the next nine points as part of an 18-5 run to go up 59-40.
Zdor answered with a dunk and a layup and then Johnston made a 3 to bring the Vaqueros within 59-47, but the Trailblazers followed with a 10-3 run to go up 69-50.
The score was 71-52 with 6:03 remaining. That's when Williams hit back-to-back layups to spark a 12-4 run to bring the Vaqueros within 75-64 three minutes later, but that's as close as they got.
UTRGV visits Southern Utah on Saturday at 2 p.m. Fans can watch domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally via
WAC International.
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