RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's basketball team tested the Southland Conference (SLC) champion Southeastern Louisiana (SLU) Lions in a tight 52-48 loss Thursday in front of 2,478 fans on School Day presented by Whataburger at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Freshman guard
Elizabeth Romer led UTRGV (16-14, 11-8 SLC) offensively with a career-high five three-pointers as she scored 15 points. Graduate student G/F
Kade Hackerott recorded her third double-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds and three assists. Junior forward
Charlotte O'Keefe tabbed a career-high five blocks and contributed 10 rebounds and three assists. Senior guard
Tierra Trotter scored seven points and had a career-high two blocks.
Alexius Horne led Southeastern (25-3, 19-0 SLC), the No. 19 team in Collegeinsider's MidMajor Top 25 poll, with 19 points, three blocks and three steals.
Jalencia Pierre score 15 points with three steals.
It was evident from the opening whistle that Thursday's contest was going to be a slugfest. The opening minutes were fast-paced and low scoring as the abundance of energy in the gym caused some shots to bounce off the rims. The Lions settled in first and took a 6-0 lead behind their physical play, but the Vaqueros answered.
Romer got the scoring started with a corner three that bounced off the top of the backboard. O'Keefe recorded a couple of blocks, but SLU was able to maintain a slight separation. Hackerott and Romer each made threes in the final minute of the quarter to give UTRGV an 11-10 lead.
The Vaqueros were efficient with their offensive chances to get in the driver's seat in the second quarter. Graduate student forward
Chynell Mitchell drained a jumper, then sophomore guard
Madison Huhn made a layup through contact to keep UTRGV on top by one. Freshman guard
Kayla Lorenz and Romer made back-to-back threes to build a 21-16 advantage.
UTRGV matched the Lions' physicality and played stellar defense in the final minutes of the half to hold a 24-2 lead at the break. The Vaqueros forced bad passes and frustrated the Lions as they tried to run plays, leading to a handful of missed shots. Hackerott banked a jumper off the glass extend the lead to four, but SLU cashed in a pair of late turnovers to be within one possession at halftime.
The teams swapped turnovers to start the third as the defenses continued to set the tone. UTRGV utilized sharp ball movement to create a wide-open layup for Lorenz. Horne made four consecutive jumpers to put SLU back on top, 30-26, as the Lions' swarming defense relentlessly pressured UTRGV's ball handlers and slowed the offense down.
The Vaqueros responded with a focused offensive effort and moved the ball well to spark a scoring run. Romer knocked down back-to-back threes, the second getting set up by another block from O'Keefe, to put UTRGV back on top by two. The teams exchanged scores buckets and SLU held a slim 38-36 lead heading to the final quarter.
UTRGV opened the fourth with a 4-0 run, but the Lions responded with an 8-0 run of their own to get their largest lead at 46-40. Trotter drilled a corner three to end a five-minute scoring drought and got the crowd fired up. UTRGV's veterans made incredible plays late as Hackerott hit a turnaround jumper and Trotter raced through traffic for a layup to give the Vaqueros a look at the go-ahead shot trailing 50-48 with 20 seconds remaining, but the Lions held on.
The Vaqueros close out the regular season Saturday at 2 p.m. at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in a game against New Orleans. The game will be part of a doubleheader with the men's teams scheduled to play at 4:30 p.m. 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.
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