Dropping the ball at home

Cardinals corral Vaqueros in tight game

The UTRGV Men’s Basketball Team lost against the University of the Incarnate Word 60-66 Monday at the Fieldhouse on the Edinburg campus.

Head coach Kahil Fennell said Monday’s result was massively disappointing.

“Full credit to Incarnate Word, they did a tremendous job staying in the fight,” Fennell said. “I did a poor job of kind of steering us in the right direction, keeping us focused on the right things. This will really sting.” 

He said the team has to get better.

“No one is going to feel sorry for us … we have to fix it,” Fennell said. “We have to find solutions and take it upon ourselves to hit bodies, to rebound, to make multiple efforts to win 50/50 balls, rebound with all five guys. … There has to be a little bit more pride when the shot goes up.”

The Cardinals led the offensive rebounds with 20 while the Vaqueros only had 5.

As the first period started, UTRGV won the tipoff. However, UIW made the first shot of the night, followed shortly by the first 3-pointer.

Senior forward Kwo Agwa racked up the first 2 points of the night for UTRGV.

The game was intense as ever, having both teams fighting fiercely for the ball. Senior guard Cliff Davis made UTRGV’s first 3-pointer of the night, bringing the score to 5-7.

Redshirt junior guard Howie Fleming Jr. stole the ball swiftly from one side of the court to the other, bringing the score to 17-19.

Graduate guard DK Thorn swiftly moved to shoot a 3-pointer, having had his teammates weave the ball through the Cardinals’ defense.

Fleming cherry-picked the ball to junior guard Trey Miller, who made the lay-up and brought the score to 25-19. 

For the rest of the first period, the Vaqueros had a strong pace, being in the lead point-wise. However, the Cardinals were leading with rebounds, with 24.

The first period ended with a Vaqueros’ lead, a 5-point difference. 

As the second half started, sophomore guard/forward Jordan Pyker for the Cardinals made the first points for the period. 

UIW graduate point guard Jalin Anderson took on a free throw after a foul on Agwa. 

Fleming proceeded to slam the ball out of Cardinals senior forward Dylan Hayman and proceeded to get a foul. 

Thorn cherry-picks it to Miller, who takes it all the way and makes the score 54-50.

The second period became a high-anxiety game to watch. The players on both teams seemed to be getting desperate to come out on top, with UIW continuously taunting UTRGV.

As the game was coming to an end with 47.3 seconds left, the Cardinals started wasting as much time as possible. They made their final shot of the night with only 20 seconds left to spare, bringing the score to a final of 60-66.

As the buzzer sounded, the teams were quick to exchange words of disagreement, not only from the players but from the coaching staff as well.

The next game will be away Saturday against Nicholls State University.