STEPHENVILLE – Junior
Hasan Abdul-Hakim made an impressive layup with 4 seconds left to give The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team the lead before a buzzer-beater sent the Tarleton State Texans past the Vaqueros 77-75 on Saturday at Wisdom Gym.
Down 74-73, Abdul-Hakim held the ball at mid-court until the clock hit 8 seconds. He faked out his primary defender to the left, blew past the help-side defender, and then with the outstretched arms of two Texans surrounding him, Abdul-Hakim switched arms in mid-air and banked-in a layup to give the Vaqueros the lead.
Lue Williams inbounded the ball to
Devon Barnes, who found
Jakorie Smith well beyond the arc on the left wing. Smith immediately put the ball up and it passed through the net as time expired.
Abdul-Hakim led the Vaqueros (2-7, 0-2) with a career-high 23 points and seven rebounds. Senior
Daylen Williams scored 16 points. Junior
Elijah Elliott scored 12 points with a career-high tying five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Senior
Ahren Freeman scored nine points with five rebounds. Junior
Sherman Brashear scored seven points with a career-high four steals.
KiAndre Gaddy led the Texans (6-2, 2-0) with 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks. Smith scored 17 points with three steals.
Lue Williams and
Emmanuel Innocenti each scored 11 points. Barnes finished with 10 points, five rebounds and five assists.
The Vaqueros jumped out to a 4-2 lead on a Williams jumper. Then, with the scored tied at 4, the Vaqueros scored four in a row to go up 8-4 on an Elliott layup.
The Vaqueros pushed their lead to six on a rim-rocking dunk by freshman
J.J. Howard
that made the score 15-9.
The Texans used a 9-2 run to take the lead before sophomore
Isaiah Barganier made a layup to put the Vaqueros up 19-18.
The Texans hit the next three baskets and led 26-21 before an Elliott layup sparked a 6-0 run to restore the Vaqueros' lead.
The Vaqueros pushed their lead to four on a Brashear free throw that made it 36-32 and took a 40-37 lead into the half on a Brashear 3.
The back-and-forth play continued in the second half, with the Vaqueros going up 43-40 on an Elliott 3, 45-44 on an Abdul-Hakim layup, 47-46 on a pair of Abdul-Hakim free throws, 49-48 on an Elliott jumper, and 51-50 on a Williams layup.
After the Texans scored the next five points, Howard came out of a time out, drove the baseline and dunked. Less than a minute later, Williams hit a layup to tie the game at 55.
The Texans pushed their lead back out to four at 61-57 when the Vaqueros scored five-straight points on free throws to go up 62-61.
One basket later, Abdul-Hakim restored the Vaqueros' lead with two free throws to make the score 64-63.
Then, after the Texans went up 65-64, Brashear nailed a 3-pointer to put the Vaqueros up 67-65.
A minute and a half later, an Abdul-Hakim layup pushed the lead to 69-66.
The Vaqueros extended their lead to five when Freeman hit two free throws and a layup to make the score 73-68 with 2:04 remaining. The Texans scored the next six points to go up 74-73 with 24 seconds left.
The game featured 26 lead changes and 15 ties. The Vaqueros led for 20:58 of game time while the Texans led for 13:32.
UTRGV is back on the road Wednesday at 7 p.m. for a non-conference tilt against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union, on
ESPN+.
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