RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team earned a wire-to-wire victory, 76-52, Saturday over the Houston Christian (HCU) Huskies in front of a homecoming crowd of 1,732 at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Senior guard
Cliff Davis and junior guard
Trey Miller shot the lights out to lead UTRGV (14-12, 6-9 Southland Conference). Davis scored 23 points and went 7-for-10 from the three-point line with two steals. Miller stuffed the stat sheet with 23 points, six assists, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Redshirt junior guard
Howie Fleming Jr. added 11 points with five rebounds and three steals. Senior forward
Kwo Agwa had a team-high seven rebounds.
Bryson Dawkins paced HCU (11-15, 8-7 SLC) with 15 points.
Peyton Rogers scored 10 points with eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Porter Bazil added 10 points and two blocks.
It was the defense that shined early in the game to allow the Vaqueros to take control. UTRGV forced a shot clock violation in the opening minutes and held the Huskies to one basket for over six minutes.
The Huskies knocked down a couple of three-pointers during a brief run to trim UTRGV's lead to 23-22 with 3:27 left to play. But the defense showed up again, coming up with a huge stop to prevent a possible go-ahead shot and turning the momentum into a corner three from Davis. The sharp-shooting senior made a trio of deep shots in the first half, finding himself open as UTRGV moved the ball crisply. The Vaqueros took a 34-27 lead into the locker room at the break.
The threes kept falling in the second half to help UTRGV consistently widen the gap. Fleming and Davis got the offensive downpour started, and playing with the lead allowed the Vaqueros to open the floor and control the pace of play. UTRGV forced 16 turnovers and stayed tough defensively throughout the contest to hold HCU to 33.9% shooting from the field.
The Vaqueros shot 50.8% from the field and knocked down 10 threes in the solid shooting effort. Agwa and Fleming did work down low, slamming home dunks to fire up the crowd.
The Vaqueros will be back at the UTRGV Fieldhouse Monday at 6:30 p.m. to face Incarnate Word. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at
GoUTRGV.com/Tickets. Current UTRGV students get into the game free with their student ID. All fans need to follow the clear bag policy and photo policies, among others, details of which can be found
here. Fans will need to be mindful of the temporary changes to the Fieldhouse parking, details can be found at
GoUTRGV.com/Parking.
Support UTRGV Men's Basketball |
Become a Fan on Facebook |
Follow us on Twitter |
Follow us on Instagram |
Follow us on YouTube
