Vaqueras walk over Cougars

The Vaqueras defeated the Chicago State University Cougars 84-38 Thursday night in their second-to-the-last home game of regular season in the UTRGV Fieldhouse.

This is the fourth time UTRGV ties a record for most points scored by the Vaqueras in a Western Athletic Conference game. It is the first time they scored 84 points since their game against the University of Kansas City-Missouri in 2015.

UTRGV sophomore guard Amara Graham hit a 3-pointer and a layup to open the game and start a 14-0 lead in the first half. Junior forward Megan Johnson scored a couple of free throws that led the Vaqueras to increase their lead 18-2.

At the 01:01 mark, senior guard Nichele Hyman made a layup, assisted by senior guard Idil Türk, putting the Vaqueras 27-10 in the first quarter.

During the second half, UTRGV increased its lead 31-14, after both senior forward Madison Northcutt and junior forward Makaela Mosley made a layup, followed by another layup by senior guard Quynne Huggins.

The Vaqueras finished the second quarter with a lead of 43-22 over the Cougars.

At the beginning of the third quarter, UTRGV was leading 43-23, but Türk hit a couple of 3-pointers. They were followed by a pair of free throws by Johnson and another couple of 3-pointers by Türk, in their run to increase the lead to 68-34.

In the fourth quarter, the Cougars scored some points but the gap in the score was nearly 30 points, and the Vaqueras reached the victory, improving their record to 15-12 overall and 9-5 in conference play.

“Well, I thought we really came out of the gates well and just played an awesome offense,” Head Coach Lane Lord said after the game. “Amara was huge early, finding open players and transition.”

The next match for the Vaqueras will be at 7 p.m. Saturday against Kansas City in the Senior Night game at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. There will be a special pregame ceremony honoring the nine-member senior class.