BEAUMONT, Texas – With 6.9 seconds on the game clock at Neches Arena, trailing by one, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's basketball team executed one of its biggest plays of the season.
Graduate student
Chynell Mitchell got her hands on an offensive rebound and was tied up with a slew of Lamar Cardinals. The possession arrow was in favor of the Vaqueros. Sophomore
Madison Huhn was inbounding from under UTRGV's basket, aiming to get the ball in the hands of freshman guard
Kayla Lorenz. Lorenz set a screen and then raced out to the left wing, where Huhn sent the inbound. Lorenz threw up a three-pointer which bounced around the rim and then went through the net, securing a 58-56 Southland Conference (SLC) victory for the Vaqueros over the Cardinals on Saturday.
The win snapped an eight-game losing streak to Lamar and marked the first victory for UTRGV over the Cardinals since 1997. It also snapped a 17-game home winning streak for Lamar which included an unblemished record at home this season – until the Vaqueros (12-13, 7-7 SLC) came to town.
Lorenz finished with six points. Graduate student G/F
Kade Hackerott paced the Vaqueros with 20 points and six assists while also recording eight rebounds. Mitchell had a career-high 15 rebounds and nine points. Senior guard
Tierra Trotter scored 11 points with four assists and junior forward
Charlotte O'Keefe added 10 points and seven rebounds.
Sabria Dean led Lamar (15-7, 10-3 SLC) with 23 points and four steals.
R'Mani Taylor added 12 points and
Akasha Davis had seven rebounds.
Hackerott got her big day started early, knocking down a three-pointer for the first UTRGV points. The Vaqueros used good ball movement, going inside out, to create scoring chances, and Hackerott found a lane to the hoop for a 9-5 lead. Defensively, the Vaqueros kept Lamar scoreless for two three-minute stretches to maintain a lead despite some shooting woes in the opening frame. With help from a three from Trotter, UTRGV held a 13-11 lead heading to the second.
Lamar came back to take a 17-13 lead as its defense forced some time violations and turnovers. The Cardinals kept the Vaqueros off the board for the first three minutes of the quarter. But UTRGV's defense was sharp, too, and the Vaqueros regained the advantage despite not making a field goal until the 4:39 mark in the frame. Hackerott and O'Keefe made three-pointers to make it 25-19 late in the half. Mitchell added a pair of late jumpers to have UTRGV up, 31-23, heading to the locker room. Mitchell had 10 rebounds and nine points at the break.
Trotter got the Vaqueros going early in the third, and a perfect 3-for-3 trip to the free throw line for Hackerott gave UTRGV its largest lead of the game at 36-25. But the feisty Cardinals defense turned things up a notch and kept UTRGV from scoring from the field for nearly six minutes, cutting the score to 38-35 in the process. Lorenz and Hackerott made threes late in the quarter and the Vaqueros took a 46-37 lead to the fourth.
Four consecutive points from Trotter put UTRGV back up by 10 after the Cardinals started the final frame hot. But the Vaqueros went scoreless for nearly five minutes as Taylor went to work for Lamar, closing the gap to 50-49 with 2:28 to play.
With 1:05 remaining, O'Keefe threw up a desperation heave from behind the arc to beat the shot clock. She had a Cardinal glued to her and sent a hook shot straight into the hoop for a wild three, making it 55-51 in favor of UTRGV. But the Cardinals came storming back with aggression in the paint and took their first lead since 8:48 in the first quarter, 56-55, with 29 seconds remaining.
The Cardinals missed a pair of late free throws to keep UTRGV's deficit at one, setting up the game winner from Lorenz. The Vaqueros shot 94.7% from the charity stripe, going 18-for-19 from the line. They also shot 53% from behind the arc in the massive win.
The Vaqueros will be back at the UTRGV Fieldhouse Thursday to take on Incarnate Word at 6:30 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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