CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team battled with the No. 13 Illinois Illini but fell 87-73 on Monday at State Farm Center.
The Vaqueros (2-4) got a season-high 21 points from senior
Kye Dickson who added five rebounds. Junior
Filip Brankovic scored 15 points with five rebounds. Redshirt junior
Always Wright added wight points with three assists.
The Illini (6-1) had five in double-figure scoring with Andrej Stojakovic leading the way with 24 points and six rebounds. Mihailo Petrovic scored 12 points with four assists. Zvonimir Ivisic added 10 points with seven rebounds and Tomislav Ivisic also scored 10 points while David Mirkovic added 10 points with five assists.
The Vaqueros and Illini exchanged jabs early in the first half. UTRGV grabbed the early 5-2 lead after a three from Brankovic and a jumper from Dickson. The Illini took the 10-8 lead on back-to-back buckets from Stojakovic.
Sophomore
Jaylen Washington gave the Vaqueros the lead once again with a jumper and then McGhee III made it 18-14 UTRGV with a three of his own but the Illini answered with a 10-0 run to grab the 24-18 lead with 8:24 to play in the half before Dickson and Brankovic put a stop to the run with a couple of buckets.
The Ilini then put together an 8-0 to push their lead to 32-22 before using the free throw line to get their biggest lead of the half at 40-26. The Vaqueros got buckets form Brankovic and junior
Koree Cotton to close out the half as the Illini took the 42-31 lead into the locker room.
The Vaqueros stayed within range to start the second half behind Dickson who scored 11 of his 21 in the first seven minutes of the half. At one point, Dickson scored eight-straight UTRGV points to keep them within 58-49.
The Illini pushed their lead to 68-51 after a dunk by Stojakovic with 10:39 to play in the game. Freshman
Julien Gomezknocked down his second three of the night and Dickson converted on a jumper to get UTRGV within 75-64 but Illinois put together an 8-0 run behind three-straight layups from Stojakovic to take their biggest lead of the night at 83-64 to put the game out of reach.
UTRGV closes out their three-game road trip and opens Southland Conference play on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. at Stephen F. Austin.
