RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team closed out the regular season with an 88-70 loss to the California Baptist University Lancers on Wednesday at Fowler Events Center.
UTRGV opens the Western Athletic Conference Tournament on Tuesday at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. The bracket, including matchups and game times, will be announced Saturday at 11 a.m.
Junior
Ahren Freeman led the Vaqueros (15-16, 6-12 WAC) with a career-high 25 points on a career-high tying 9-of-16 shooting from the field and a career-high 7-of-12 shooting from the line to go with eight rebounds. Freshman
Adante' Holiman scored 15 points. Senior
Justin Johnson scored 12 points with four assists. Junior
Daylen Williams grabbed seven rebounds with four assists, a season-high tying three steals, and four points.
Taran Armstrong led the Lancers (16-14, 8-9 WAC) with 20 points, five rebounds, and seven assists.
Blondeau Tchoukuiegno scored 19 points with five assists.
Reed Nottage scored 17 points with seven rebounds.
Riley Battin scored 10 points with eight rebounds.
Tre Armstrong also scored 10 points.
Malik Wade finished with seven points and 10 rebounds.
Freeman hit an early jumper to tie the game at 2. The Lancers went on an 11-2 run to go up 13-4. A Freeman jumper and a layup and a 3 by Holiman helped the Vaqueros pull within 16-11.
The Lancers went up 12 three times late in the second half, but with the score 35-23, Holiman converted a 3-point play to bring the Vaqueros within 35-26.
The Vaqueros got as close as six at 37-31 on a Johnson layup with 3:12 remaining in the half. The Lancers, however, followed with a 13-2 run to take a 50-33 lead three minutes later.
The Lancers pushed their lead to 25 at 67-42 with 13:18 remaining. That's when a Freeman layup sparked an 11-0 run to bring the Vaqueros within 67-53.
Another Freeman layup kept the Vaqueros with 14 at 69-55 before a 7-2 run put the Lancers up 19.
The Vaqueros responded with a 7-0 run on back-to-back layups by graduate student
Dima Zdor and a Johnson 3 to make the score 76-64.
The Vaqueros were again within 12 at 78-66 on a Freeman layup with 3:38 left, but that's as close as they got.
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