The UTRGV men’s basketball team defeated Grambling State University 74-73 tonight at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in the opening game of the 2019 Collegeinsider.com Tournament. It was hosted by UTRGV for the first time in the program’s history.
The last time UTRGV won 21 games was in the 1989-90 season. Now the Vaqueros holds an overall record of 20 wins and 16 losses. In the 2001-02 season, they also won 20 games. This season could be the one in which the Vaqueros get a new program record of winning games.
Tonight was UTRGV’s second largest home crowd of the season and largest at the Fieldhouse since the 2017-18 season when the Vaqueros faced New Mexico State University and drew 2,234 fans.
During the first four and half minutes of the first half, both teams traded a couple of baskets. Then, Vaquero junior guard Jordan Jackson made a layup and hit a 3-pointer to power a 10-0 run that led UTRGV to a 19-8 lead.
GSU got back with a 22-7 run, taking a 30-26 lead over the Vaqueros, but shortly after UTRGV responded with another 10-0 run after junior forward Lesley Varner II made a jumper. GSU scored another 11 points but the Vaqueros remained with the lead 42-41 at halftime.
In the second half, Jackson hit a 3-pointer but GSU scored six-straight points to take the lead 47-45 over UTRGV.
The Vaqueros were down 70-63 with 4:53 remaining, but graduate guard Tyson Smith hit a 3-pointer and a couple of free throws, which was followed by senior forward Terry Winn III who sunk a layup, helping the Vaqueros to tie the score 70-70.
GSU junior guard Dallas Polk-Hilliard, made a 3-pointer with less than two minutes left, putting his team back on top, but Winn III made a layup with 57.9 seconds remaining and a pair of free throws with 9.8 seconds left reaching the score 74-73 to end the game.
Smith led the Vaqueros with 19 points and seven assists, Varner scored 14 points with six rebound and two steals, sophomore guard Javon Levi scored 14 points with seven assists and three steals, Winn scored 10 points with six rebounds and Jackson finished with 10 points and two blocks.
Head Coach Lew Hill, gave his general statement about tonight’s opener win.
“Well, like I told my guys we take all wins, right?” Hill said. “It wasn’t pretty. At the end of the year it goes down pretty ugly, it goes down to win. So, we don’t throw them back. It wasn’t our best defensive game today, it wasn’t our best effort game today, but like we’ve been doing all year dug down when it counted and found a way to win.”
UTRGV (20-16) now waits to learn the location, date, time and opponent for its next game.
