RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's basketball team dropped a tight 72-70 game Saturday to the Stephen F. Austin (SFA) Ladyjacks at the UTRGV Fieldhouse as part of #RallyTheValley Week, presented by McAllen International Airport.
Junior guard
Jalayah Ingram tabbed her sixth double-double with a career-high 15 rebounds, 13 points, seven assists and two steals to have UTRGV (16-10, 13-4 Southland Conference) fighting to the last second. Sophomore guard
Gianna Angiolet scored a career-high tying 17 points, going 5-for-7 from the three-point line, with a career high two blocks. Redshirt junior guard
Erin Maguire scored a season-high tying 15 points on a perfect day shooting 6-for-6 from the field and 3-for-3 from three with five assists. Senior forward
Charlotte O'Keefe recorded 17 rebounds, four assists and four points, and freshman forward
Chazlyn Dettor scored 14 points with four rebounds.
Key Roseby led SFA (18-8, 12-5 SLC) with 17 points.
Harmanie Dominguez scored 14 with four three-pointers and
Aziyah Farrier added 11 points and six rebounds. SFA scored 33 points off 22 turnovers in the victory.
The Vaqueros showed their fight from the first quarter. After opening the game a little flat and unable to find an offensive rhythm as SFA played tight defense, UTRGV found itself trailing by six. The Vaqueros settled in and started moving the ball effectively to create scoring looks inside and out. Maguire knocked down a three and Dettor made a nice left-handed hook shot after side-stepping a double team to trim the deficit to one.
Then, the dynamic duo of O'Keefe and Ingram stepped up to have the Vaqueros leading after one. O'Keefe scored on a nice drive after anchoring a big defensive stop, and Ingram cleaned up a late miss and drilled a mid-range jumper at the buzzer for the 18-15 advantage.
The first five baskets of the second quarter were threes as the teams combined to make 10 three-pointers in the quarter and 13 in the first half. Angiolet nailed a three to aid a 7-0 run that had UTRGV leading 21-15. But the Ladyjacks showed why they lead the conference from behind the arc to even things up at 24-24.
UTRGV responded with an 8-1 run backed by threes from Maguire and Angiolet to open up their largest lead at 32-25. SFA shot lights-out from the field, especially from long distance, to close the half strong and force a 36-36 tie at the break.
The Ladyjacks were tenacious in the third quarter. They scored eight points off turnovers and battled UTRGV on the boards to open a 52-45 lead before Maguire hit a clutch three to give the Vaqueros some late momentum. But SFA made its 10
th three of the game to have a 55-50 advantage heading to the final quarter.
The Vaqueros showed their resilience in the fourth. They tightened up defensively and knotted the game at 57-57 after a three-pointer from sophomore guard
Kayla Lorenz. But SFA responded to force turnovers and continued to shoot well from the floor, opening up a 10-point lead with less than five minutes to play.
Angiolet knocked down her fifth three-pointer after an offensive rebound by O'Keefe to cut the deficit to six points with just under three minutes remaining. O'Keefe and Ingram continued to dominate on the boards and recorded consecutive offensive rebounds, with Ingram being fouled on hers to send her to the line. Ingram, one of the top free throw shooters in the nation, made both to make it 72-67.
The UTRGV Fieldhouse was rocking after the Vaqueros got a big stop and pushed the ball up the court, where Angiolet made a strong layup to make it a one-possession game. A free throw from Dettor had the Vaqueros trailing by just two points and got the fans to their feet for the final 39 seconds, but the last-second shot came up just short.
Up next for the Vaqueros is the final road trip of the regular season starting with a 6:30 p.m. game at McNeese on Thursday.
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