RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's basketball team picked up a solid 88-78 win over the New Orleans (UNO) Privateers Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse to begin its final homestand of the season.
Graduate student guard
DK Thorn led UTRGV (15-15, 7-12 Southland Conference) with a career-high 25 points, leading all scorers in the game, and had four assists and three steals. Redshirt junior guard
Howie Fleming Jr. recorded a double-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Senior guard
Cliff Davis and junior guard
Trey Miller also scored in double digits as they dropped 16 and 10 points, respectively. Davis also had six rebounds and four assists while Miller tabbed four assists and three steals. Thorn and Davis both made four three-pointers. UTRGV went 14-for-15 at the free throw line, shooting 93% to aid the win.
JR Jacobs led New Orleans (4-26, 2-17 SLC) with 20 points, four assists and four steals.
Theo Grant scored 18 and
MJ Thomas added 14 points with eight rebounds.
Leland Coleman scored 11 points.
The Vaqueros were knocking down three-pointers early in the contest and used a 7-0 run to jump out to a 20-8 lead. New Orleans responded with a 7-0 run of its own. The pace of play picked up as the teams swapped baskets, then turnover issues and missed threes kept the Vaqueros off the board for over four minutes. UNO slammed home a dunk to force a timeout as the Privateers found themselves leading 35-32.
UTRGV answered with a nice defensive stand, plugging the paint and turning a defensive rebound by Davis into a transition layup by Miller to reclaim the lead. That play sparked an 8-0 run for the Vaqueros and fired up the defense, which gave UNO fits and prevented it from scoring from the field for the final three minutes of the half. UTRGV took a 42-37 lead into the locker room.
The Vaqueros stayed hot from behind the arc to start the second half, knocking down four threes in the first five minutes of the frame. But the Privateers were hitting shots, too, to keep things close, and they took a 56-55 lead with 12:14 remaining.
Thorn and Davis made back-to-back threes, with a steal from Miller setting up the second possession, to get back on top. Thorn slammed home a dunk on a nice backdoor bounce pass from redshirt sophomore
Marshal Destremau, who came up big in the final minutes, to build a 63-56 advantage. Destremau tabbed a three-point play and Miller hit a three to grow UTRGV's cushion to double digits after the pesky Privateers had closed the gap to one possession again.
The teams swapped baskets until a Miller three put UTRGV up 82-71, which was enough to hold off UNO's comeback effort as the Vaqueros were sharp at the charity stripe.
The Vaqueros will be back at the UTRGV Fieldhouse for a Monday Madness game at 6:30 p.m. to face Southeastern in the season finale. 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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