SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Its no secret the UTRGV men’s basketball team can light up the scoreboard. The Vaqueros entered Sunday’s contest averaging 82.8 points per game, the 21st-best mark in the nation.
UTRGV also ranks sixth in the country in field goal percentage (51%) and second in free-throw attempts per game (27.8).
The Vaqueros continued their offensive dominance during Sunday’s second annual UTRGV South Padre Island Battle on the Beach, defeating the Houston Christian Huskies 100-90 at the South Padre Island Convention Center.
The scoring output marked the second consecutive game the Vaqueros have eclipsed triple digits, netting 106 points during a win over Southwestern Christian on Thursday.
“Our confidence should be sky high,” UTRGV head coach Matt Figger said. “We know we have the ability to play offense. We have to have that killer instinct from a defensive standpoint and take pride in what we’re doing, and we did it tonight.”
Junior Ahren Freeman and senior Justin Johnson came up big down the stretch for the Vaqueros, helping put the game out of reach.
With the Huskies within six early in the second half, Johnson and Freeman combined for six points as a part of an 11-0 run to make it 61-44 with 16:57 remaining.
Not long after, the duo combined for nine points as a part of a 14-2 run by the Vaqueros, capped by a 3-pointer by Johnson to make it 83-59 with 9:02 remaining.
Johnson finished with a game-high 29 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field. He added eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Freeman chipped in a career-high 23 points, triple of his scoring average of 7.7 heading into Sunday. Freeman just missed out on a double-double as well, hauling in nine rebounds.
“I’m pretty much just understanding what I have to do to stay on the floor and doing it to the best of my ability,” Freeman said. “Like Coach was saying earlier: I was still trying to figure things out. Once I got it going, I’m just trying to stay in my rhythm. That is pretty much the plan going forward.”
The victory moves the Vaqueros to 8-4 overall, matching last year’s win total. Last season UTRGV didn’t reach eight wins until March 2 with just two regular season games remaining.
They head into conference play riding a three-game winning streak, averaging 100.3 points per game during that span.
“Coach (Figger) and the rest of the coaches did a good job in recruiting good guys off the court as well,” Johnson said. “When they got here in June, they were ready to learn. I was trying to be a good leader and teaching them how to play the system. We’re growing every day. We’re getting better every day as a team and everybody is learning their roles.”
The Vaqueros get a 11-day break before kicking off Western Athletic Conference play at 8 p.m. Dec. 29 against Utah Tech (6-5) at the Burns Arena in St. George, Utah.
