UTRGV snaps four-game winless streak

The UTRGV Men’s Basketball Team secured its first Western Athletic Conference win after blowing out Chicago State University 85-63 tonight at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. 

After opening conference play 0-4, the Vaqueros (6-11, 1-4) got their first W against the Cougars (5-13, 1-4), shooting 54.7% for the night and garnering 39 rebounds, 33 of which were defensive, and 21 total assists.  

UTRGV Men’s Basketball head coach Matt Figger said when you go a little under a month without a win, you get hungry. 

“Really happy for the win,” Figger said. “Really happy that we got that monkey off our back and now we can probably, hopefully, take some more steps towards becoming a better team.” 

Graduate guard Mike Adewunmi led the Vaqueros with 19 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and one block for his third double-double of the season. 

“It feels good to get another double-double and I feel like I really helped my team get the win,” Adewunmi said. “So, just looking to build on that.” 

Graduate guard Xavier Johnson scored 16 points and four assists. Graduate forward Marek Nelson had 13 points with three blocks and junior guard Justin Johnson ended the night with seven points and a career-high 13 rebounds.

Early in the first half, CSU took a 7-6 lead. Exchanging buckets back and forth, the Cougars took a four-point lead at 11-15. 

After three free-throws from X. Johnson and two from Nelson, they gave UTRGV the lead halfway through the first half at 18-17. A three-pointer from Nelson gave the Vaqueros a five-point lead at 23-17.  

UTRGV would further extend its lead toward the end of the first half with a no-look pass from Adewunmi to X. Johnson to make it 40-32. The Vaqueros would go into the half with a 40-34 lead. 

CSU head coach Gerald Gillion said he thought his team played hard in the first half and did a good job executing. 

Asked what Gillion’s message was for his team going into the second half, he replied, “Just continue to play hard and compete. Probably could have done a better job with just controlling the game a little bit just from a routine standpoint, but our guys came out shorthanded and we fought extremely hard and we just got to be ready for the next one.”  

The Vaqueros started the second half on a hot start, going on a 10-0 run to make it 50-34 on an Adewunmi three-point play. 

“Once we saw the first one go in, we got a little bit of juice, a little bit of momentum,” Adewunmi said. “And I felt like we did a good job building on that.”

Then, with a score of 54-40, a three-pointer from sophomore guard Quinton Johnson II extended the Vaqueros’ lead to 17 points. 

The Cougars would not be able to close the deficit after that and were outscored 45-29 in the second half. 

Coach Figger said UTRGV took them out in the second half and kept control of the game after the 10-0 run to start it. 

“They kept fighting and scraping and they can never get it back under 14, I think, [in the] second half, so we kept it pretty comfortable,” he said. 

Guard Dominique Alexander led CSU with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Forward Coreyoun Rushin ended the night with 13 points, five rebounds and two assists 

“They’re a tremendous team, well-coached and have a lot of talent out there and good luck to them throughout the rest of the season,” Gillion said about the Vaqueros. 

UTRGV’s next game is at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Utah Valley University. 

“We’ve got to find solidarity with consistency of having guys on the team,” Figger said. “Not hurt, not in a training room. … I’ve got to do a better job with our guys, offensively. I mean, we scored 85 points tonight but we’ve been running stuff that I‘ve not been comfortable with … because of the lack of people that we’ve had to move around. And so, I’ve got to get back to running stuff that I’m comfortable with.”