The UTRGV women’s basketball team lost its Western Athletic Conference (WAC) opener 63-50 to the Grand Canyon Lopes on Wednesday at the GCU Arena in Phoenix.
The Vaqueros (0-6, 0-1 WAC) were led by junior Kade Hackerott who finished the game with 13 points and seven rebounds. Junior Arianna Sturdivant scored 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting with two steals. Junior Iyana Dorsey scored nine points with four rebounds and three assists.
The Lopes (5-2, 1-0 WAC) had four scorers in double-figures with Trinity San Antonio leading the way with 14 points and six assists. Tiarra Brown and Shay Fano each scored 13 points and Olivia Lane added 12 points.
GCU opened things up by scoring the first 10 points of the game before senior Mele Kailahi got UTRGV on the board with a layup followed by a layup from junior Tierra Trotter. The Lopes then went on a 9-0 run to push their lead to 22-4 but the Vaqueros answered by scoring the final five points to close out the first quarter cutting into the Lopes lead at 22-9.
The Vaqueros continued their run into the second quarter as they got a jumper from Hackerott and then Sturdivant knocked down a three-pointer to get within 22-14. Later in the second, junior Deborah Ogayemi got a bucket in the paint and Dorsey later followed with a couple of free throws to get UTRGV within 26-20 with 4:11 left in the half.
That would be the closest UTRGV would get as GCU used a 6-0 run to push their lead to 32-20.
Kailahi got the scoring rolling in the second half with a three-pointer, but the Lopes put together a 9-0 run that was capped by a San Antonio jumper that made it 46-28. Hackerott and Sturdivant combined to score the next five points for UTRGV with three free throws and a layup that made it 46-33 with 2:46 left in the third but the Lopes closed out the quarter with a three-pointer and a three-point play from Brown that extended the GCU lead to 54-35.
The Vaqueros didn’t give up in the fourth as they got a layup from Dorsey and two more layups from Hackerott that got them within 56-42. After the Lopes pushed their lead back to 63-42 with a 7-0 run, the Vaqueros got three-pointers from Dorsey and Kailahi to make it 63-48 but the Lopes kept the Vaqueros at bay the rest of the way.
UTRGV will be back in action when they host Tarleton State at 2 p.m. Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
