RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's basketball team secured its spot in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Tournament in Las Vegas with a 66-58 victory over the Tarleton Texans on Wednesday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Sophomore
Iyana Dorsey led UTRGV (10-16, 4-11 WAC) with 27 points. She hit three 3-pointers and was 10-for-11 at the free throw line. Dorsey is now seven points away from eclipsing 1,000 career points. Sophomore
Deborah Ogayemi scored nine points and hauled in seven rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field. Freshman
Charlotte O'Keefe scored eight points and tallied 11 rebounds, two blocks and two assists. Junior
Jena' Williams dished out a team-high five assists and scored four points.
Tarleton (7-20, 1-15 WAC) was led by
Nyajah Mitchels who scored 18 points and
Teresa Da Silva who scored 14 with a team-high six rebounds.
The Vaqueros came out hot to start the contest, opening up a 6-0 lead. UTRGV's defense was solid in the opening frame, forcing two shot clock violations and four turnovers to hold a 14-11 lead despite a late push by the Texans. O'Keefe anchored a strong rebounding effort from the Vaqueros.
Dorsey got the second quarter started with a three-point play, driving hard to the bucket and finishing a tough shot through contact then nailing the free throw. Graduate student
Burcu Soysal tallied two blocks and sophomore
Arianna Sturdivant knocked down a deep 3-pointer to extend UTRGV's lead to 20-14.
But Tarleton came out of a timeout and went on a 9-0 run fueled by Da Silva and
Elise Turrubiates to take its first lead of the game, 23-20. The Texans held a 26-22 advantage at halftime.
UTRGV kept Tarleton off the board for the first three minutes of the second half and went on a 7-0 run to take a 29-26 lead, aided by a 3-pointer from Dorsey. The Texans responded with a 6-0 run of their own.
The Vaqueros closed the third quarter with a barrage of 3-pointers to hold a 45-42 lead heading to the final frame. Sturdivant got the run started to put UTRGV back on top 34-32, then Dorsey drained back-to-back shots from behind the arc and junior
Halie Jones knocked down the fourth Vaqueros 3-pointer in a three-minute span for a 45-38 advantage.
Determined to clinch a spot in the conference tournament, UTRGV went on a tremendous 12-0 run to start the fourth quarter, keeping Tarleton scoreless for the first four and a half minutes of the frame as it increased the advantage to 57-42. Ogayemi scored five points in that stretch and Jones nailed her second 3-pointer of the contest as the Vaqueros created a wave of momentum and executed well on both ends of the court.
Tarleton continued to fight and went on a 9-2 run to get within eight with under two minutes to play, but a big bucket from Ogayemi and good free throw shooting from Dorsey kept UTRGV on top.
The Vaqueros will play their final home game of the season Saturday at 4 p.m. against Sam Houston at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
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