RIO GRANDE VALLEY – With 2,734 fans packed into the UTRGV Fieldhouse on Saturday, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team earned an exciting 83-73 win over the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (AMCC) Islanders in the South Texas, presented by Rally Credit Union.
Graduate student guard
DK Thorn led UTRGV (13-9, 5-6 Southland Conference) with a game-high 21 points and made a career-high tying five three-pointers to go with a career-high five steals. Redshirt junior guard
Howie Fleming Jr. scored 17 points and tabbed six rebounds. Redshirt sophomore forward
Marshal Destremau contributed a career-high 16 points as he shot 100% from the field (6-for-6) with a pair of threes. Junior guard
Trey Miller added 12 points and dished out a career-high nine assists while senior forward
Kwo Agwa had a team-high 10 rebounds.
Garry Clark recorded a double-double for Corpus Christi (14-9, 7-4 SLC) with 15 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
Owen Dease scored 15 points with six rebounds.
Isaac Williams and
Jordan Roberts added 13 and 10 points, respectively.
The teams swapped scoring runs early, setting the tone for a competitive game from the jump. After an 8-0 run from UTRGV, both offenses slowed down and went scoreless for roughly two minutes until Miller sparked the Vaqueros on the court and in the stands.
The Vaqueros poured 13 unanswered as Destremau and senior guard
Cliff Davis drained three-pointers to put UTRGV up, 29-17. The defense had highlights, too, swiping steals and forcing 10 turnovers that the offense cashed in to hold a 39-30 lead at halftime.
Thorn picked up where he left off in the second half and knocked down a pair of threes to grow the lead to 11 points. But Corpus answered with an 8-0 run and came within 48-46 of the lead with 13:41 to play. Destremau fired up the Vaqueros with a three-pointer to end a scoreless gap.
Both teams battled in the middle of the second half, pushing the pace and playing physical basketball as they swapped buckets and kept things tight. A three from Dease got Corpus within four with under eight to play, until Destremau and Fleming got the Vaqueros on a roll. Fleming knocked down a three-pointer from the wing to give UTRGV some cushion, and back-to-back steals by the Vaqueros helped open the advantage to 73-60. The Vaqueros shot well at the free throw line to secure the win.
UTRGV is back in action Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Northwestern State.
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