Down nine with just over two minutes remaining, the UTRGVwomen’s basketball team went on a 13-2 run to storm past the Utah Valley Wolverines 63-62 on Thursday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in Edinburg.
Down 59-50 with 2:11 to play, sophomore Charlotte O’Keefe made a layup and then junior Kade Hackerott made a 3. After a Liana Kaitu’u layup, O’Keefe made another layup and then junior Tierra Trotter converted a three-point play with 25 seconds left to make the score 61-60.
The Vaqueros fouled and Tessa Chaney missed both free throws. After a timeout, the Vaqueros missed two 3-point attempts but got two offensive rebounds, the second of which led to a jumper by junior Arianna Sturdivant with 6.6 seconds to go. As the shot was in the air, graduate student Ashton McCorry was fouled. She hit one of her free throws, which ended up being the difference in the game.
Freshman Jayda Holiman led the Vaqueros (6-18, 5-10 WAC) with 16 points and a career-high eight rebounds. Trotter scored 12 points with four rebounds and three assists. Sturdivant scored 11 points. Hackerott scored nine points with seven rebounds and three assists.
Amanda Barcello led the Wolverines (9-16, 4-12 WAC) with 17 points and five rebounds. Tahilia White scored 13 points with seven rebounds. Eleyana Tafisi scored 11 points with four rebounds and two blocks.
The Vaqueros used 3-pointers to take a trio of early leads, going up 3-1 on a Sturdivant 3-pointer, and 6-5 and 7-11 on Trotter 3-pointers.
Then, with the Vaqueros up 13-10, the Wolverines went on a 12-2 run to go up 22-15. Holiman responded with two 3-pointers and a jumper to power an 11-2 run and put the Vaqueros up 26-24.
The Wolverines scored six of the next seven points to take the lead before another Holiman 3 tied the game at 30 with 20 seconds left in the second quarter.
Trotter converted a 3-point play early in the third quarter to bring the Vaqueros within 34-33 before an 8-2 run pushed the Wolverines’ lead to seven.
A Hackerott layup and a Holiman 3-pointer brought the Vaqueros within 44-42 late in the quarter.
The Wolverines pushed their lead to 50-42 early in the fourth quarter. Baskets by Hackerott and senior Zariah Sango brought the Vaqueros within four before the Wolverines followed with a 9-4 run to take their largest lead at 59-50.
UTRGV hosts Seattle 2 p.m. Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse for alumni day.
Fans can also take advantage of the baseball/basketball bundle promotion. Fans can use their tickets to Saturday’s women’s basketball game to get free admission to Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. baseball game against Milwaukee at UTRGV Baseball Stadium, or vice versa.
Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at GoUTRGV.com/Tickets.
