WACO – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team fell 96-81 to the (RV) Baylor University Bears in the season opener on Monday at Foster Pavilion. 
 
The Vaqueros (0-1) had four players in double-figures with 11 different scorers throughout the game. Graduate student Marvin McGhee III led UTRGV with 16 points and nine rebounds. Junior Filip Brankovic scored 14 points with five rebounds. Graduate student Zae Blake added 14 points with three assists and senior Kye Dickson added 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting. 
 
Cameron Carr paced the Bears (1-0) with 28 points and five rebounds. Tounde Yessoufou scored 24 points with seven rebounds. Obi Agbim added 16 points while Dan Skillings Jr. added 15 points of his own. 
 
The first half saw each team put together a pair of runs as the Vaqueros came out swinging first. Brankovic dominated in the opening minutes scoring the first seven points of the game before a jumper by junior Koree Cotton quickly made it 9-0 UTRGV. The Bears came right back with an 11-0 run behind a trio of three-pointers as they took the 11-9 lead. 
 
UTRGV countered with a 14-1 run led by Blake, who knocked down a three to snap the Bears run and then later converted a three-point play that made it 17-12 but the run was capped by layups by Dickson and sophomore Jaylen Washington for the 26-12 advantage with 11:14 left to play in the half. 
 
Baylor closed out the half on a 17-4 run to take the lead the rest of the half with Yessoufou hitting back-to-back buckets to give the Bears the 46-37 lead. 
 
The Vaqueros and Bears exchanged buckets to open the second half, but the Bears used an 11-3 run to take their biggest lead of the night at 66-45 after a three-pointer from Skillings Jr. and a jumper from Carr with 14:29 left in the game.    
 
McGhee III knocked down a couple of three-pointers to help the Vaqueros get within 66-53 and then later in the half a jumper from Blake made it 73-57 with 10:08 left to play.
 
The Vaqueros got a pair of three-pointers from Brankovic and freshman Julien Gomez to get within 85-71 but the Bears didn't allow the Vaqueros to go on another run to get any closer.  
 
The Vaqueros will be back in action on Nov. 8 when they visit Southern Utah at 7:30 p.m. at America First Event Center. 

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