The UTRGV Men’s Basketball Team will be back in action at 7 p.m. Nov. 25 against Texas A&M International University as part of the South Texas Showdown in the Fieldhouse.
The Vaqueros played against North Dakota State University last Friday and battled Stony Brook University Saturday at the Islander Invitational in Corpus Christi.
Sunday, UTRGV faced off against Texas A&M University Corpus Christi as part of the South Texas Showdown. Results were unavailable at press time.
As of Thursday, the Vaqueros’ record was 1-1.
On Nov. 11, the men’s basketball team demolished Howard Payne University 93-42 at the Vaqueros’ Home Opener, a game that was cut short due to a leak in the Fieldhouse roof.
With 30 turnovers and a lead of 53 points during the second half, the Vaqueros came out to win and that’s what they did.
“Our first game we were impersonating a Vaquero basketball team,” UTRGV Head Coach Lew Hill said. “This is how we play. We learned from it and came out and played the game that we practice every day. We played the way that we’re supposed to play.”
With a 32-point disadvantage at the end of the first half, HPU Head Coach Troy Drummond detailed his words of encouragement for the Yellow Jackets.
“[I] told them to keep playing hard,” Drummond said during halftime. “Keep trying to execute and keep going. UTRGV [is] a great team. They’re coming out very physical and they’re more athletic than we are. So, we gotta go out there and we gotta keep playing hard.”
Redshirt freshman guard Quinton Johnson II scored 19 points for UTRGV, the highest among the team.
“He’s a really good shooter,” Hill said. “He’s made himself into a shooter. He works really, really extremely hard. He’s one of the first ones out there, one of the last ones to leave. Every time he has a break and he can get into the gym, he’s in
the gym.”
Junior guard Javon Levi also scored in double digits with 10 points.
“I think we just came out and really executed the offense,” Levi said. “We made a big jump from last game as far as just running the offense. We played pretty good defense, but we still got work to do.”
Nonetheless, the team was disappointed the game had to be cut short after the Fieldhouse roof sprang a leak above the court. A rainy cold front swept the Rio Grande Valley during the game, which ended in the third quarter with 9 minutes and 23 seconds remaining.
“I think we would’ve cracked about 125, 130,” Levi said. “So yeah, I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get to keep playing.”
