The UTRGV women’s basketball team saw its season come to an end after a 67-54 loss to Grand Canyon in the opening round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament on Wednesday at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
The No. 6-seeded Vaqueros were led by Amara Graham as the graduate student posted a game-high 24 points to go with six rebounds and four assists. Graham finished her career with over 1,000 points scored at UTRGV.
“She was big time just like she has been the last three years that I’ve been with her; just an all-around great player,” UTRGV head coach Lane Lord said. “She’s the true definition of a student athlete and she’s really the only one that brought it tonight. She had 24 points which she’s done about 15 times this year. We just didn’t have another person to step up as she did so we really struggled form the floor all night long.”
GCU outscored UTRGV 43-22 during the first half and maintained their lead throughout the third and fourth quarters despite a late push from Graham.
“Overall, I think today just didn’t go as we planned. I don’t think we played as a whole,” Graham said. “It just didn’t go the way we wanted it. It’s a sad night.”
Grand Canyon used its defensive pressure to take control against the Vaqueros. The Lopes press forced UTRGV into mistakes and a poor shooting night from the floor at just 34.6%.
“I just think Grand Canyon really frightened some of our players with their press and we didn’t handle it very well. We didn’t coach very well and all the credit goes to Grand Canyon,” Lord said.
Grand Canyon was led by 16 points and eight rebounds from Tiara Brown and Ny’Dajah Jackson chipped in 11 points and eight boards.
Junior post Burcu Soysal also added nine points and six rebounds for the Vaqueros.
UTRGV finishes its season 6-14 overall and 2-8 in WAC competition after a roller coaster of a year that included several cancellations and postponements due to COVID-19 concerns.
“We’ve been through a lot this year, but no excuses. We’ve got to be better in these situations and that’s my job to make sure we get better next year,” Lord said. “It’s been a rough year for all of us emotionally, mentally, but we finished and I’m proud of that.”
