BEAUMONT – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team made 14 three-pointers en route to an 83-72 victory over the Lamar University Cardinals on Tuesday at Neches Arena.
The Vaqueros (4-6, 1-1 SLC) finished the game shooting 56% (14-25) from three-point range while shooting 51.7% from the floor. Graduate student
Marvin McGhee III scored 18 points while going 6-of-9 from beyond the arc and added seven rebounds. Junior
Filip Brankovic scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds with four assists. Freshman
Julien Gomez scored 10 points with three rebound and junior
Koree Cotton scored 10 points with five assists.
The Cardinals (5-5, 0-2 SLC) were led by Andrew Holifield, who scored 24 points. Cody Pennebaker scored 16 points with eight rebounds while Rob Lee Jr. added 12 points.
The Vaqueros got rolling from the opening whistle behind a couple of jumpers from Brankovic and redshirt junior
Always Wright for the early 4-0 lead.
UTRGV used the three-pointer to open things up in the first half as they made nine in the first half. McGhee III knocked down the first three of the game that made it 7-2 UTRGV and then after another three from McGhee III, that made it 12-6, the Vaqueros went on a 13-3 run behind a trio of three-pointers from Cotton, Gomez, and sophomore
Dane Christensen that extended UTRGV's lead to 25-9.
The Cardinals took advantage of the free throw line in the first half as they made 14 of 18 attempts from the charity stripe. UTRGV's defense held Lamar to 34.6% shooting in the first half as the Vaqueros shot 62.1% from the floor to take the 49-34 lead into halftime.
The second half started with more of the same from the Vaqueros with McGhee III knocking down a three-pointer to get the scoring started. Later a jumper from Wright and a three-pointer from senior
Kwo Agwa gave UTRGV their biggest lead of the night at 61-40 but the Cardinals went on a 12-3 run behind a three-pointer and a three-point play from Holifield that made it 64-55 with 10:28 to play
The Vaqueros then got a jumper from Brankovic and a three-pointer from McGhee III to push the lead to 69-55 but the Cardinals used the three-ball to keep the game close with Pennebaker knocking down a couple and one from Holifield that made it 77-68 but UTRGV converted it's free throws to close out the game and sealing the victory.
The Vaqueros return home to host the College of Biblical Studies on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. Fans can purchase tickets at
UTRGVTickets.com. Students get in free with a valid student ID but will need to claim a ticket at
GoUTRGV.com/StudentTickets. A
clear bag policy is in place for all UTRGV Athletics venues.
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