RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's basketball team earned a dominant 63-41 victory over the Houston Christian University (HCU) Huskies Thursday behind a massive second half in a Southland Conference (SLC) contest at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Senior forward
Charlotte O'Keefe notched her seventh double-double with a game-high 19 points, 11 rebounds, and a season-high tying five assists to lead UTRGV (12-9, 9-3 SLC). She was 7-for-8 from the field and 5-for-7 from the free throw line, continuing her strong shooting. Junior guard
Jalayah Ingram scored 18 points with six rebounds and six assists. Freshman forward
Chazlyn Dettor added 14 points with five rebounds, shooting 6-for-10 from the field. Redshirt junior guard
Erin Maguire recorded a career-high tying seven assists.
UTRGV didn't allow any HCU (5-14, 3-9 SLC) players to reach double digits in scoring.
Tove Caesar led the Huskies with nine points and
Madison Hurta scored seven.
The Vaqueros shot 49% from the field while holding the Huskies to 29% and scored 16 points off turnovers to HCU's five.
UTRGV's defense set the tone for the game from the opening whistle, keeping the Huskies scoreless for the first 3:30 of action. O'Keefe carried her momentum over from the game at HCU on Saturday, going 3-for-3 from the field in the first quarter to have UTRGV leading 12-8. She went five quarters without missing a shot and knocked down a jumper in the closing seconds of the frame to push the lead to two possessions. Ingram drew two offensive fouls against the Huskies as she anchored the solid defensive effort which included forcing a shot clock violation on HCU's final possession to maintain the lead.
The second quarter started similar, with the Vaqueros keeping the Huskies off the board for close to three minutes while opening up a 16-10 lead. Ingram scored on a strong drive through traffic, beating three defenders on her way to the hoop, and drained a turnaround jumper. Dettor made a three-pointer after the defenses slowed the scoring down for a stretch and the Vaqueros led by as many as six after a long jumper by sophomore guard
Gianna Angiolet. UTRGV had a 25-22 advantage at half.
The third quarter was all Vaqueros as they outscored the Huskies 25-9 to open up a 50-31 lead. UTRGV shot 90% from the field, only missing one shot from the three-point line in the massive quarter. Dettor scored nine in the frame, executing well in the offensive sets to get wide-open looks and take advantage of the mismatches in the paint when the Huskies went small. HCU didn't score from the field for over five minutes as the Vaqueros went on a 20-4 run.
Sophomore guard
Kayla Lorenz made two three-pointers early in the fourth and O'Keefe made a layup through contact and Ingram hit a hook shot to extend the lead to a game-high 28 at 63-35 with 5:52 on the clock. The Vaqueros turned to the bench to close out the game and HCU finished on a 6-0 run.
UTRGV's next game is Saturday at 1 p.m. at UIW in San Antonio.
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