RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) women's basketball team battled to nearly erase a 17-point deficit but was defeated, 65-63, by the Houston (UH) Cougars in front of 1,447 fans at UTRGV Fieldhouse Thursday.
Trailing 56-47 entering the fourth quarter, UTRGV (3-2) tightened up defensively, holding Houston (3-2) scoreless for five minutes. Meanwhile, a driving layup by junior
Ivy Brown, five made free throws, and a second-chance layup by sophomore
Elizabeth Romer knotted the game at 56. The Vaqueros and Cougars traded baskets before Houston's
Jade Jones scored a buzzer-beating layup to earn the win.
Senior
Charlotte O'Keefe nabbed her fourth double-double of the season, scoring a season-high 20 points while adding 14 rebounds, two blocks, two assists, and one steal. Junior
Jalayah Ingram grabbed a career-high eight rebounds and four steals to go along with 16 points and four assists. Junior
Erin Maguire scored 10 points to go with two rebounds and one assist. Brown stuffed the stat sheet picking up a career-high eight rebounds and five assists.
UH had three Cougars score 10+ points, with 18 coming from Jones who shot 9-for-12 from the field.
Kyndall Hunter and
Briana Peguero each added 12.
The Vaqueros and Cougars traded baskets in the first quarter. For the Vaqueros, O'Keefe made her presence known in the paint for the Vaqueros, scoring five of the first nine points for UTRGV. The Cougars ended the quarter on an 8-0 run to build a 22-15 advantage.
Houston continued its run, scoring the first six points of the second quarter, before Maguire hit a spot-up three at the top of the key. The Vaqueros used their speed to create opportunities inside the paint which resulted in a 5-0 run by Ingram to cut the Houston lead to 12. Houston scored the next five before, junior
Madison Huhn drilled a corner three with 40 seconds remaining in the half.
The Vaqueros came out of the half firing as an Ingram layup, Maguire three-pointer, and an Ingram swipe-and-score cut deficit to single digits within the first three minutes of the quarter. Back-to-back buckets from the Cougars stopped the run, but O'Keefe scored eight of the last 10 UTRGV points to end the third with a nine-point deficit.
The Vaqueros will visit #10 TCU for a 4:00 p.m. tilt on Sunday at Schollmaier Arena.
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