Nov. 8, 2004
Box Score
In Extreme Makeover Home Edition, it takes seven days for a team of designers to turn an outhouse into a penthouse for some luckily homeowner.
For The University of Texas-Pan American men's basketball team, it only took two days for the Broncs to experience an extreme makeover of their own.
After going through the normal first game mistakes, the Broncs put together an all-around incredible performance en route to hammering Universidad Regiomontana, 96-62, at the UTPA Fieldhouse on Monday (Nov. 8).
"I'm extremely pleased with tonight's performance," said head coach Robert Davenport. "I thought that we looked better, and it's good to see that our guys listened to the instructions that we gave them over the weekend."
UTPA set the tone for the evening from the initial tip by controlling the ball, waiting patiently for the play to develop then capitalizing on the open shot. Behind two quick three-pointers by Matt Berry (Tulsa, OK/Indiana State University) and Sergio Sanchez (San Antonio, TX/Temple College), the Broncs jumped out to a 12-0 lead before the first media timeout occurred at the 15:30 mark.
Sanchez was the offensive catalyst for the Broncs, who had five players finish with double-digit points. The UTPA senior was the team leader against the Jaguars as he recorded 16 points, including draining four three-pointers, along with a team-high six assists. Berry also added 11 points, converting on three treys of his own.
"All you can say about Sergio is that he played like Sergio. He comes, does his job and does it well so I'm extremely pleased with his performance. Matt also shot the ball well tonight, and I was happy with him as well," Davenport said.
While pressuring Universidad Regionmontana into making poor decisions offensively, the Broncs were able to build upon their lead and increased it to as many as 26 points with under 10 minutes remaining in the half. Senior Ray Castillo (San Antonio, TX/Temple College) drained his second of three treys at the 9:57 mark to up the Broncs lead to 31-6. The Broncs converted on 13 of 28 three-pointers in the contest compared to four treys for the Jaguars.
"It doesn't shock me that we were able to make that many shots because we have guys who can flat out shoot. Sergio, Matt and Ray all had at least three, and those guys can flat-out shoot the ball. I expect us to shoot that well," added Davenport.
Over the course of the next six minutes, the Broncs continued to add to their lead and bumped it up to 30 points at 47-17 when freshman Dexter Shankle (Katy, TX/James E. Taylor H.S.) drained his first three-pointer of the evening at the 3:14 mark. Shankle finished the contest with eight points along with three assists.
After taking a 51-23 lead into the locker room, the Broncs built it to 37 points at 66-29 when Eric Montalvo (La Joya, TX/La Joya H.S.) picked the pocket of Ricardo Hernandez before racing down the court and finishing off the play with a dunk. The UTPA senior finished with 13 points and added four assists, three steals and a pair of rebounds.
"Eric did a lot of good things out there. Sometimes it doesn't necessarily show in the stat sheet, but he's always where he supposed to be," Davenport stated.
The closest that the Jaguars would get to the Broncs lead was 32 points, which was especially hard considering that Universidad Regiomontana usually only had one opportunity to make a shot. The reason was UTPA senior Alvaidas Gedminas, who played a cog in the middle all evening and grabbing every ball that came off the rim. The Broncs' man in the middle finished with a game-high 17 rebounds to go along with 11 points. In two exhibition contests, Gedminas has recorded a pair of double-double performances along with collecting 30 rebounds, averaging 15.0 boards per game.
"I don't remember the last time we had somebody get 17 rebounds in a contest. It seems as though he gets his hands on every ball, but sometimes he needs to pull the ball in after he gets his hands on it. He could have very easily had over 20 rebounds tonight," Davenport commented.
UTPA held a 49-34 advantage in the rebounding category while shooting 50 percent for the game compared to 36 percent for the Jaguars.
Derrick East (Binger, OK/Lookeba-Sickle H.S.) finished the evening with 12 points on 6-9 shooting while notching five rebounds. Chris Fagan (Bronx, NY/Trinidad State College) added eight points, four rebounds and three assists while Shankle racked up six points of his own.
The Broncs will be back in action in their season opener on November 23rd at the UTPA Fieldhouse against Texas A&M - International. Game time is slated for 7:30 p.m.
UTPA Sports Information
