RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Senior
Justin Johnson scored his 1,000
th-career point as The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team earned its first Western Athletic Conference (WAC) victory by beating the Abilene Christian University Wildcats 103-86 on Wednesday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
The Vaqueros (9-8, 1-4 WAC) shot 67.4% (31-46) from the field, the third-highest single-game shooting percentage in program history and the best since shooting a program record 71.9% (46-64) against Centenary on Jan. 30, 1978.
Johnson finished with a game-high 25 points, increasing his career total to 1,005 points, on 10-of-13 shooting, with five rebounds, three assists and one steal. Graduate student
Dima Zdor scored a career-high 24 points with eight rebounds, a career-high tying three assists, a career-high tying three steals, and a career-high five blocks. Sophomore
Will Johnston posted his second double-double with 19 points and 10 assists. Sophomores
Sherman Brashear and
Derrius Ward each scored 10 points with seven rebounds. Junior
Daylen Williams finished with 10 points and four rebounds.
Immanuel Allen led the Wildcats (9-8, 1-3 WAC) with 26 points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
Tobias Cameron finished with 12 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Ali Dibba finished with 10 points.
Down 5-2 early, the Vaqueros exploded, as a Johnston 3 sparked a 14-2 run during which time the Vaqueros hit six of their eight shots to take a 16-7 lead.
The Vaqueros pushed their lead to 10 at 21-11 on a Johnston 3 at the 12:20 mark of the first half.
The Wildcats pulled to within 21-15 before Williams powered a 10-2 run with seven points to make the score 31-17.
The Wildcats scored the next seven points to pull within 31-24.
Then, with lead 34-28, the Vaqueros went on a 14-4 run, capped by a Johnson pull up 3, to make the score 48-32 with 2:26 remaining in the first half.
Johnson put an exclamation point on the half with a buzzer-beating jumper to put the Vaqueros up 51-37.
The Wildcats pull within 53-44 early in the second half before back-to-back baskets by Zdor gave the Vaqueros a 57-44 lead.
The Vaqueros took their largest lead at 82-61 on a Johnson layup at the end of a 9-2 run with 6:40 remaining.
The Wildcats scored the next 12 points to pull within 83-72.
The Wildcats were as close as 11 at 97-86 with 54 seconds left, but Johnston went 6-for-6 from the line to put the game on ice.
UTRGV hosts Chicago State for a non-conference game at the UTRGV Fieldhouse on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. as part of a single-admission doubleheader with the women's basketball team, which hosts Grand Canyon for a WAC game at 4 p.m. Tickets are on sale now at
UTRGVTickets.com. Current UTRGV students receive free general admission with their student ID. All fans need to follow the clear bag policy, details of which can be found at
GoUTRGV.com/ClearBag. The party starts in Schlotzsky's Vaquero Village at 3 p.m.
Fans unable to attend in person can watch domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally via
WAC International.
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